By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed positive for the third straight day on Thursday with the market recording a growth of 0.64 percent.
Business Post correspondent reports that the major market indicators inched northward at the close of transactions at the market, increasing the confidence investors have in the market lately.
The stock market reacted positively to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIG Bill) by the Senate today, leaving the All-Share Index (ASI) to improve by 181.18 points to close at 28,467.61 points, while the market capitalisation advanced by N63 billion to finish at N9.841 trillion and the year-to-date return ended 5.93 percent.
Our correspondent further reports that the market breadth closed positive at the close of trading activities with 30 stocks appreciating in price against 14 declining stocks.
Furthermore, investors exchanged a total of 419 million shares at the market on Thursday, which were executed in 3,944 deals valued at N5 billion.
This was in sharp contrast to a total of 311.3 million shares traded at the close of trading activities on Wednesday by investors in 4,194 deals worth N3.5 billion.
On the price movement log, Nestle topped the gainers’ table with a rise of N20 to close at N870 per share, while Stanbic IBTC increased by N1 to finish at N26.1k per share.
GTBank also advanced by N1 to end at N33.60k per share, GlaxoSmithKline added 80k to close at N16.80k per share and UACN moved up by 65k to finish at N14.98k per share.
On the other hand, Mobil declined by N15.77k to end at N299.63k per share, while PZ Cussons depreciated by N1.15k to close at N17.85k per share.
Nigerian Breweries slumped by N1 to finish at N145 per share, CAP Plc sank by 25k to end at N34.25k per share and Oando dropped 19k to close at N8.36k per share.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya