By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading day of the first half of 2018 on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on a positive note with the market bouncing back with 1.44 percent growth, pushing the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns back to the green territory to close at 0.09 percent
At the close of business last Friday, June 29, 2018, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 545.11 points to settle at 38,278.55 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N197 billion close at N13.866 trillion.
Business Post reports that the volume of shares traded by investors increased by 13.11 percent, while the value of transactions went up by 30.64 percent.
A total of 469.3 million shares were transacted last Friday in 3,355 deals worth N5.8 billion in contrast to the 414.9 million equities exchanged last Thursday valued at N4.5 billion.
These trades were dominated by financial stocks, which exchanged 362.1 units worth N4.6 billion, while the Natural Resources equities followed with 71.4 million units sold for N14 million.
Wema Bank emerged the most active stock, trading 171.3 million shares valued at N120 million.
It was followed by GTBank, which traded 75.1 million equities worth N3 billion, and Multiserve, which exchanged 71.4 million units valued at N14.3 million.
Zenith Bank sold 50.5 million shares valued at N1.3 billion, while Fidelity Bank transacted 20.9 million shares for N47.4 million.
On the price movement chart, the top five advancers chart was led by Nestle Nigeria, which gained N73.90k to close at N1575 per share.
It was followed by Total Nigeria, which went up by N9.50k to finish at N210 per share, and Dangote Cement, which increased by N4 to close at N229 per share.
Nigerian Breweries grew by N3.20k to end at N114.20k per share, while Stanbic IBTC appreciated by N2 to settle at N52 per share.
On the flip side, Forte Oil emerged the day’s biggest loser after shedding N1.20k of its share value to close at N32.85k per share.
It was trailed by Lafarge, which went down by N1.05k to finish at N40.95k per share, and Flour Mill of Nigeria, which fell by 20 kobo to end at N32 per share.
Honeywell Flour declined by 12 kobo to finish at N2.29k per share, while FCMB depreciated by 11 kobo to settle at N2.18k per share.
Adedapo Adesanya