By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on a positive note on Thursday as investors pick undervalued stocks to add to their portfolios.
This helped the All-Share Index (ASI) rise by 35.24 points to settle at 32,417.82 points, and supported the N13 billion growth recorded by the market capitalisation, which finished at N11.835 trillion.
The market, at the close of business, was facing north by 0.11 percent, reducing the year-to-date loss to 15.23 percent.
Some renewed activities were witnessed at the stock market yesterday; leaving the volume of stocks transacted increasing by 10.37 percent just as the value of equities traded appreciated by 47.70 percent.
A total of 148.5 million shares worth N2.9 billion were exchanged by investors on Thursday compared with the 134.6 million units sold for N1.9 billion on Wednesday.
Like in the previous sessions, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 122 million equities traded for N2.3 billion, while this time, the Conglomerates sector followed with 9.5 million shares exchanged for N13 million.
GTBank emerged the most traded stock at the market yesterday, accounting for 48.7 million shares valued at N1.8 billion.
It was followed by Fidelity Bank, which exchanged 13.9 million units worth N26.4 million, and FCMB, which transacted 11.1 million equities valued at the N18.8 million.
Transcorp exchanged 9.4 million shares for N11.8 million, while FBN Holdings traded 7.2 million equities for N65.9 million.
Business Post reports that Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart after appreciating by N9.70k to close at N1430 per share.
Okomu Oil rose by N4 to settle at N79.80k per share, while Stanbic IBTC grew by N2.05k to finish at N45 per share.
Flour Mills went up by N1.55k to close at N21.95k per share, while Dangote Sugar added 15 kobo to its share value to end at N14.70k per share.
Conversely, Forte Oil recorded the biggest price decline after losing N1.85k of its share price to close at N20.25k per share.
Nigerian Breweries depleted by 50 kobo to quote by N85 per share, while GTBank shed 40 kobo to close at N36.50k per share.
Cutix reduced by 17 kobo to trade at N4.33k per share, while UBA lost 15 kobo to settle at N8.05k per share.
