By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian bourse closed the last trading day of the week yesterday on a positive note with the market rising by 0.26 percent at the close of business. This pushed the year-to-date returns forward to 7.27 percent.
Friday’s upward movement put a halt to the four-day losing streaks at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). It was the first gain at the market this week.
The growth also came despite the dismal 2017 results released yesterday by Diamond Bank Plc after much wait.
At the close of transactions on Friday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 107.37 points to finish at 41,022.31 points, while the equity capitalisation increased by N38.9 billion to settle at N14.860 trillion.
It was observed that uptrend was across all sectors with the oil and gas gaining the most with 1.89 percent.
The banking sector appreciated by 0.59 percent, while the consumer goods industry slightly went up by 0.07 percent.
Business Post reports that the volume of shares traded by investors yesterday depreciated by 12.39 percent, but the valued slightly increased by 3.35 percent.
The trades, according to data harvested from the NSE, were dominated by the Financial Services sector with 169.5 million shares sold for N2.2 billion, followed by the Oil and Gas sector, which traded 9.9 million equities worth N395 million.
A breakdown showed that GTBank recorded the highest volume of trades yesterday with 25.9 million units exchanged for N1.2 billion.
It was followed by Zenith Bank, which sold 22.2 million shares for N629.3 million, and Sovereign Trust Insurance, which traded 19.8 million equities valued at N4 million.
Fidelity Bank transacted 16.9 million shares worth N42.1 million, while LASACO Assurance sold 10.6 million equities valued at N4.3 million.
In all, a total of 214.6 million shares were traded by investors on Friday worth N4.2 billion executed in 3,675 deals in contrast to the 244.9 million shares sold on Thursday in 3,804 deals valued at N4.1 billion.
A look at the price movement chart showed that Seplat emerged the biggest price riser, appreciating by N25 to close at N750 per share.
It was followed by Nestle Nigeria, which gained N10 to finish at N1580 per share, and Okomu Oil, which went up by N4.95k to settle at N90 per share.
Presco improved yesterday by N3.60k to finish at N75.60k per share, while CCNN grew by N1.95k to end at N29 per share.
On the flip side, it was a bad day for Lafarge as its shares declined by 90k to end the day at N41.10k per share.
Nigerian Breweries lost 80k to close at N124.50k per share, while Total Nigeria went down by 40k to end at N221.80k per share.
Furthermore, UAC of Nigeria shed 40k on Friday to settle at N17 per share, while GTBank dropped 25k of its share value to close at N44.25k per share.
