Interest in BUA Cement, Others Increases Investors’ Wealth by N213bn

By Dipo Olowookere

Investors trading stocks in Nigeria gained N213 billion on Wednesday on the back of interest in the shares of BUA Cement, International Breweries and Eterna, which rose by 10 per cent each.

During the session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated by 1.03 per cent as a result of the bargain hunting on these equities and others.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 402.14 points to 39,512.31 points from 39,110.17 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N213 billion to N20.660 trillion from N20.447 trillion.

Yesterday, the shares of BUA Cement grew by N6.40 to finish at N70.40 per unit, International Breweries appreciated by 59 kobo to close at N6.49 per share, Eterna rose by 51 kobo to N5.61 per share, C&I Leasing gained 42 kobo to settle at N4.73 per unit, while NEM Insurance gained 14 kobo to sell for N1.63 per unit.

Conversely, Flour Mills topped the losers’ table after it fell by N1.50 to close at N26 per unit, Union Bank depreciated by 30 kobo to sell for N5.30 per unit, Guinness Nigeria lost 30 kobo to finish at N19 per unit, GTBank depreciated by 20 kobo to sell for N32.50 per share, while Access Bank declined by 20 kobo to N8.75 per share.

At the market on Wednesday, the trading volume reduced by 48.39 per cent to 372.9 million units from 722.6 million units, while the trading value increased by 162.57 per cent to N11.5 billion from N4.4 billion, with the number of deals rising by 2.86 per cent to 5,186 deals from 5,042 deals.

UBA was the most active stock at the midweek session, selling 60.6 million units worth N524.7 million, Dangote Cement transacted 33.2 million shares for N8.0 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 27.5 million units valued at N690.9 million, Access Bank sold 24.5 million equities for N215.0 million, while Transcorp traded 21.0 million shares for N19.2 million.

When trading activities were brought to an end yesterday, the banking and energy indices were down by 0.71 per cent and 0.39 per cent respectively, while the industrial goods, insurance and consumer goods sectors were up by 3.74 per cent, 2.99 per cent and 0.36 per cent respectively.