By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday reversed the bearish trend recorded yesterday to finish positive.
At the close of transactions today, the equity market rose by 0.27 percent amid strong buying pressure, pushing the year-to-day gain to 41.36 percent.
With tomorrow the only trading day left in the year 2017, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 101.17 points today to settle at 37,990.74 percent, while the market capitalisation increased by N36 billion to end at N13.520 trillion.
The market breadth, Business Post reports, closed positive today unlike the previous day, finishing with 27 price gainers and 10 price losers.
It was Total Plc’s day on Thursday after the stock added N10.95k to its share price to settle at N229.95k per share, growing by 5 percent.
Nestle increased by N10 to close at N1485 per share, while Mobil advanced by N8.64k to finish at N186.95k per share.
Furthermore, Lafarge appreciated by N2 to finish at N45 per share, and Nigerian Breweries garnered N1.16k to end at N135.20k per share.
However, it was not a good day for Dangote Cement as it went down at the close of trading today by 50k to close at N230 per share.
It was followed by Cadbury, which shed 8k to finish at N15.67k per share, and Honeywell Flour, which fell by 7k to settle at N2.12k per share.
Dangote Sugar depreciated by 5k to close at N20.10k per share, while Fidelity Bank sank by 4k to finish at N2.45k per share.
Like the previous day, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 194.3 million shares exchanged for N1.7 billion, while the Conglomerates industry followed with 101.3 million shares traded for N158 million.
A further breakdown showed that Transcorp, just like yesterday, sold the highest number of shares, trading 100.6 million units for N145.8 million.
It was trailed by FBN Holdings, which exchanged 45.7 million shares worth N411 million, and Fidelity Bank, which traded 42.3 million shares valued at N103 million.
UBA executed 31.3 million shares for N321 million, while FCMB exchanged 16 million shares valued at N22.5 million shares.
At the close of business on Thursday, the total volume of equities transacted by investors fell sharply by 24.31 percent from 426 million to 322.4 million, while the valued broadly went up by 70.61 percent from N2.1 billion to N3.6 billion.
Investors expect the market to close for the year on a positive note as the buying pressure is expected to be sustained tomorrow.
