By Dipo Olowookere
The 0.02 percent marginal growth printed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday ensured that the local bourse did not return to the dungeon it struggled to get out from on Tuesday.
At the midweek trading session, the gains posted by the banking (+0.21 percent) and industrial goods (+0.08 percent) sectors helped the Nigerian equities remain in the green territory.
The consumer goods sector lost 0.31 percent, while the insurance sector declined by 0.23 percent, with the energy sector closing flat. However, the market may succumb to the call of the bears before the week runs out.
Business Post observed that the market breadth closed negative as the bourse could only manage to get 9 stocks on the gainers’ chart compared with the 17 on the losers’ table.
C&I Leasing was the day’s highest price riser. The share price rose by 45 kobo to N5.40 per unit, while UAC Nigeria improved by 20 kobo to N9.50 per unit.
Access Bank gained 15 kobo to sell at N9.75 per share, Africa Prudential appreciated by 10 kobo to trade at N4.70 per share, while Lafarge Africa also improved by 10 kobo to quote at N15.60 per share.
On the opposite side, Guinness Nigeria lost N2.20 to lead the decliners’ table, closing at N28 per unit, while SAHCO went down by 32 kobo to sell at N3.05 per unit.
Flour Mills depreciated by 30 kobo to settle at N22.50 per share, Cadbury Nigeria declined by 30 kobo to N9.10 per unit, while Vitafoam lost 24 kobo to close at N4.79 per share.
The number of shares traded by investors on Wednesday reduced by 70.35 percent to 81.9 million units from 276.3 million units, while the value decreased by 71.43 percent to N1.1 billion from N3.7 billion, with the number of deals falling by 34.58 percent to 2,414 from 3,690.
GTBank was the most active stock by volume traded. A total of 46.1 million units of the lender’s equities worth N1.3 billion exchanged hands during the midweek session at the NSE.
Zenith Bank traded 20.7 million shares valued at N414.2 million, UBA sold 11.9 million equities worth N92.9 million, FBN Holdings transacted 10.5 million units for N62.5 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 5.8 million shares for N12.5 million.
Business Post reports that the slight gain recorded at the market yesterday boosted the All-Share Index (ASI) by 6.53 points to 27,878.43 points from 27,871.90 points, and the market capitalisation by N4 billion to N14.520 trillion from N14.516 trillion.
