By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was on cloud nine on Tuesday, reversing the losses printed on Monday courtesy the gains posted by MTN Nigeria, Lafarge Africa and some other stocks.
The equity market appreciated yesterday by 1.24 percent as a result of buying interests in these stocks, which had traded at very low prices for a while.
According to data obtained by Business Post from the exchange at the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) jerked up on Tuesday by 255.81 points to 20,925.19 points from 20,669.38 points, while the market capitalisation moved up by N133 billion to N10.905 trillion from N10.772 trillion.
The lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State did not stop investors from trading stocks at the market as the local bourse remained very busy, though transactions occurred remotely.
By the time activities were brought to an end yesterday, the volume of shares traded increased by 328.79 percent, while the value of stocks exchanged by market participants rose by 34.93 percent, with the number of deals increasing by 11.07 percent.
It was observed that a total of 1.4 billion stocks worth N5.6 billion exchanged hands in 4,647 deals during the session compared with the 336.4 million equities worth N4.1 billion transacted in 4,184 deals the previous session.
An analysis of the trades showed that Omoluabi Mortgage Bank boosted the trading volume on Tuesday with 1.1 billion units of the company’s stocks worth N605.0 million.
GTBank traded 161.1 million shares for N2.9 billion, FBN Holdings transacted 32.4 million equities worth N140.8 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 28.6 million shares valued at N366.3 million, while UBA traded 20.6 million shares for N110.1 million.
On the price movement chart, MTN Nigeria dominated the gainers’ log. The telco’s stocks appreciated by N2.80 to sell at N94.80 per unit.
Lafarge Africa gained 95 kobo to trade at N10.75 per share, Zenith Bank moved up by 90 kobo to N12.95 per unit, Custodian Investment garnered 50 kobo to trade at N5.75 per unit, while UBA chalked up 45 kobo to quote at N5.45 per share.
Conversely, Ardova was the worst performing stock at the market yesterday. The energy stocks depreciated by N1.35 to settle at N12.45 per share.
Cadbury Nigeria lost 70 kobo to trade at N6.30 per unit, Flour Mills went down by 50 kobo to N21 per share, BUA Cement lost 30 kobo to finish at N31.50 per share, while Axa Mansard crashed by 17 kobo to N1.58 per unit.
A look at the sectoral performance showed that only the banking and industrial goods counters closed in the green territory. While the former appreciated by 3.22 percent, the latter went up by 3.44 percent.
However, the insurance index depreciated by 2.18 percent, the oil/gas sector fell by 0.62 percent, while the consumer goods declined by 0.14 percent.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya