By Dipo Olowookere
Gains printed by 31 equities led by Nigerian Breweries Plc contributed to the 0.07 percent marginal growth recorded at the stock market on Wednesday.
The bourse resumed for business yesterday after two days off to celebrate the end of the month of Ramadan by Muslim faithful.
The positive momentum recorded before the close of work last Friday commenced from where it stopped as investors maintained their buying interest in local stocks.
At the close of transactions for the midweek session, the bulls attracted 31 stocks to their side, while the bears managed only 11.
Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of N3.95 to settle at N43.45 per unit, while Dangote Cement gained N3.30 to sell at N137.30 per share.
Stanbic IBTC rose by N3.25 to trade at N35.80 per share, Guinness Nigeria appreciated by N1.45 to finish at N19.20 per unit, while Dangote Sugar garnered N1.20 to quote at N14 per unit.
On the decliners’ table, Ardova stayed on top with a price depreciation of N1.60 to sell at N14.40 per share, while Caverton dropped 14 kobo to trade at N2.47 per unit.
NAHCO deflated by 8 kobo to close at N2.32 per share, Africa Prudential scattered by 5 kobo to end at N4.20 per unit, while Transcorp slipped by 5 kobo to close at 72 kobo per share.
Unlike the previous session, the sectoral performance was mixed with the banking and consumer goods sectors up by 5.36 percent and 3.09 percent respectively, and the industrial goods, insurance and energy indices down by 1.98 percent, 0.56 percent and 0.34 percent respectively.
However, the activity chart was green with the volume, value and number of deals executed at the midweek session up by 124.06 percent, 94.04 percent and 38.43 percent respectively.
A total of 581.6 million stocks worth N5.6 billion exchanged hands in 7,759 deals on Wednesday compared with the 259.6 million shares valued at N2.9 billion transacted in 5,605 deals last Friday.
FBN Holdings was the most attractive stock yesterday, trading 120.9 million units valued at N681.9 million, while Zenith Bank followed with 67.3 million units worth N1.2 billion.
GTBank traded 62.7 million shares for N1.5 billion, UBA exchanged 45.8 million stocks worth N328.6 million, while Transcorp transacted 36.5 million equities valued at N27.0 million.
A look at the main market performance indicators showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) grew on Wednesday by 16.48 points to 25,221.23 points from 25,204.75 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N8 billion to N13.144 trillion from N13.136 trillion.
