By Dipo Olowookere
The nation’s stock market initially looked like it would start the first trading session of the week bearish, but gains recorded by large-cap equities kept trading activities bullish.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.07 percent higher on Monday, thanks to the strong performance put up by MTN Nigeria, GTBank and six other stocks.
The investor sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was negative due to the 14 price losers as a result of profit taking witnessed at the session.
The All-Share Index (ASI) increased slightly by 16.90 points to settle at 22,616.28 points, while the market capitalisation went up by marginally N9 billion to finish at N11.787 trillion.
Business Post reports that shares of MTN Nigeria rose by 90 kobo on Monday to settle at N104.90 per unit, while GTBank gained 70 kobo to trade at N20 per share.
Union Bank appreciated by 20 kobo to close at N6.75 per share, Zenith Bank chalked up 15 kobo to trade at N14.20 per unit, while Oando appreciated by 9 kobo to end at N2.39 per unit.
The heaviest price loser during the trading session was Nigerian Breweries. Share price of the brewery company went down by N3.45 to N31.05 per unit.
Guinness Nigeria lost 35 kobo to sell at N18.55 per share, SAHCO maintained its freefall by losing 10 kobo to trade at N1.42 per unit, Ecobank slipped by 10 kobo to N4.50 per share, while C&I Leasing depreciated by 10 kobo to finish at N5 per unit.
The activity level reduced on Monday with decline in the volume of trades by 48.91 percent to 108.1 million units from 211.6 million, while the value of transactions reduced by 40.35 percent to N1.3 billion from N2.2 billion, with the number of deals falling by 15.24 percent to 3,354 from 3,957.
LASACO Assurance was the most traded stocks during the session, selling 13.5 million units worth N3.5 million, while GTBank followed with 11.8 million units sold for N229.0 million.
UBA exchanged 11.0 million shares valued at N65.0 million, FBN Holdings transacted 7.4 million stocks worth N32.2 million, while Access Bank traded 6.5 million equities for N40.9 million.
