By Dipo Olowookere
A pause was put to the bearish sentiment witnessed in the last five trading sessions at the local stock market on Wednesday.
This followed the 0.15 percent rise recorded by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which had remained weakened despite few companies posting impressive earnings for 2018 financial year.
The growth achieved yesterday was influenced by stocks in the consumer goods sector, with the index rising by 1.60 percent, as well as shares in the banking industry, which helped the sector closed 0.04 percent higher.
The biggest price gainer during the midweek session was Nestle Nigeria, which appreciated by N69.90k to close at N1549.90k per share.
CAP rose by N3.40k to end at N37.40k per share, while Okomu Oil appreciated by N1 to settle at N80 per share.
Eterna garnered 40 kobo to finish at N4.80k per share, while Sterling Bank grew by 21 kobo to close at N2.36k per share.
At the other end, Guinness Nigeria dominated the losers’ table with N3.15k of its share value dropped to close at N64 per unit.
Dangote Cement fell by N2 to end at N192 per unit, while Dangote Flour depreciated by 50 kobo to close at N9.50k per share.
Africa Prudential lost 37 kobo to finish at N4.55k per share, while UAC Nigeria went down by 20 kobo to settle at N7.80k per share.
For the major market indicators, the market capitalisation increased yesterday by N18 billion to close at N11.695 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 46.92 points to finish at 31,360.28 points.
Business Post reports that though the volume of shares transacted increased by 72.08 percent to 377.5 million from 219.4 million, the value went down by 22.74 percent to N2.3 billion from N2.9 billion.
The largest volume of shares traded at the market was Diamond Bank equities, which recorded a turnover of 113.6 million units sold for N283.4 million.
A total unit of 72.2 million shares of Chams was sold for N14.4 million, while FBN Holdings traded 71.5 million stocks for N586.2 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 14.6 million units worth N321.4 million, while United Capital traded 12.9 million shares valued at N42.4 million.
