By Dipo Olowookere
The local bourse opened on a positive note on Monday after the public holiday declared last Friday to mark Eid-el Maloud in celebration of the birthday of Prophet Mohammed.
At the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, equities recorded a marginal growth of 0.08 percent to leave the year-to-date return at 41.30 percent.
However, the market breadth ended negative on Monday as there were 25 declining stocks as against 20 price gainers.
Also, the volume and value of shares transacted by investors reduced as a total of 500.2 million equities exchanged hands on Monday in 4,966 deals worth N6.4 billion compared with 11.8 billion shares valued at N21.4 billion traded in 5,152 deals last trading day on Thursday.
Business Post reports that Nestle led the gainers chart after adding N15.11k to its share value to settle at N1330.11k per share.
It was trailed by Seplat, which grew by N3 to close at N498 per share, and Total, which advanced by N2 to finish at N240 per share.
Cadbury gained N1.31k to end at N14.25k per share, while Nigerian Breweries progressed by N1.20k to close at N133.50k per share.
However, it was not a palatable story for Mobil, which topped the losers’ log after losing N7.44k to close at N152.21k per share.
It was followed by Guinness Nigeria, which went down by N4.87k to end at N92.64k per share, and Forte Oil, which depreciated by N1 to settle at N44.99k per share.
UAC of Nigeria declined by 50k to end at N17 per share, while CCNN shed 48k to settle at N9.39k per share.
At the close of transactions yesterday, it was Custodian and Allied that emerged the most traded stock in terms of volume, trading 70 million units worth N262.5 million.
FBN Holdings sold 56.9 million shares valued at N412 million, while Zenith Bank traded 55.6 million shares for N1.4 billion.
Transcorp exchanged 54.2 million shares valued at N72.3 million, and Fidelity Bank traded 50.5 million shares worth N103 million.
A look at the market indicators showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) slightly increased by 29.98 points to close at 37,974.58 points, while the market capitalisation added N10.8 billion to settle at N13.2 trillion.
