By Dipo Olowookere
The positive momentum on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was extended on Thursday with the 1.57 percent growth recorded at the close of transactions.
This was mainly buoyed by the gains recorded by Nestle and other blue-chip stocks as well as continued buying interests in Zenith Bank, Nigerian Breweries and Nestle.
Lately, the local bourse has been experiencing upward movement as a result of the renewed confidence of investors in the country’s capital market.
This is despite the controversial suspension of the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Mounir Gwarzo, by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, for allegedly ignoring pressure from her to stop the forensic audit of Oando Plc, accused of violation of market rules.
At the close of market yesterday, the year-to-date return increased to 47.11 percent from 45.40 percent the previous day.
Trading activities on Thursday improved with the volume of transactions and market turnover increasing by 50.62 percent and 39.22 percent respectively as investors exchanged 1.1 billion shares worth N10.2 billion.
The highest price gainer yesterday was Nestle, appreciating by N79.97k to settle at N1410.8k per share.
It was followed by Okomu Oil, which gained N5 to close at N75 per share, and Seplat, which grew by N3.31k to finish at N501.31k per share.
Furthermore, Nigerian Breweries improved by N3.10k to end at N143.50k per share, while Zenith Bank advanced by N1.46k to wrap the day at N27.50k per share.
On the flip side, Total led the price losers’ chart after depreciating by N11.99k to settle at 228.1k per share, and was trailed by GTBank, which went down by N1.4k to close at N42.1k per share.
Dangote Cement declined by N1 to finish at N250 per share, Lafarge lost 80k to close at N49 per share, while Unilever crashed by 61k to close at N43.79k per share.
The market capitalisation increased by N159.8 billion on Thursday to settle at N13.8 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) added 458.84 points to close at 39,534.14 points.
