MTN, 19 Other Equities Lead Market to 0.40% Growth

By Dipo Olowookere

Equities at the bourse in Nigeria appreciated by 0.40 per cent on Thursday to reverse the losses printed at the previous session to boost the year-to-date return to 6.39 per cent.

The gains were buoyed by MTN Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC and 18 other stocks, which overpowered the losses recorded by 10 equities led by GlaxoSmithKline.

MTN Nigeria appreciated by N2 yesterday to settle at N140 per share, Stanbic IBTC gained N1 to close at N44 per unit, UAC Nigeria rose by 55 kobo to end at N7.15 per share, Lafarge Africa went down by 35 kobo to N17.65 per share, while Dangote Sugar increased its equity value by 30 kobo to N13.80 per unit.

On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline lost 20 kobo to finish at N5.40 per share, CAP fell by 20 kobo to N18.50 per unit, International Breweries declined by 19 kobo to N6.25 per unit, Zenith Bank depreciated by 15 kobo to trade at N20.65 per share, while Red Star Express dropped 5 kobo to close at N3.20 per share.

During the session, a total of 311.3 million shares worth N4.7 billion exchanged hands in 3,375 deals compared with the 326.6 million stocks worth N4.2 billion transacted in 4,367 deals at the midweek session.

Just like in the preceding day, much of the trades were on banking stocks, with GTBank emerging the most attractive, selling 77.8 million units worth N2.3 billion.

Access Bank traded 57.7 million shares for N442.8 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 39.6 million equities valued at N813.8 million, FBN Holdings traded 21.8 million stocks worth N131.6 million, while UBA transacted 18.2 million equities valued at N122.8 million.

Business Post reports that at the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) improved by 114.38 points to 28,563.87 points from 28,449.49 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N60 billion to N14.930 trillion from N14.870 trillion.

It was observed that only the industrial goods index closed in the green territory on Thursday as it grew by 0.15 per cent. The insurance space depreciated by 0.93 per cent, the energy counter fell by 0.07 per cent, the consumer goods went down by 0.06 per cent, while the banking sector dropped 0.03 per cent.