Nigerian Stocks Extend Gains by N141bn as ASI Rises 1.01%

By Dipo Olowookere

Bargain hunting by investors on Thursday ensured that the gains recorded on Wednesday on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) were maintained by the market, Business Post is reporting.

It was observed that the gains spread across the sectors monitored during the trading session with consumer goods index closing as the highest gainer, by 3.78 percent.

The banking space appreciated by 1.70 percent, the industrial sector rose by 1.13 percent, the insurance industry improved by 0.56 percent, while the energy sector gained 0.49 percent.

At the market yesterday, only seven price losers were recorded as against the 22 price risers led by Nestle Nigeria, which appreciated by N80 to finish at N1200 per unit.

Forte Oil gained N1.35k to close at N15.35k per share, Dangote Sugar improved by 80 kobo to settle at N9.30k per unit, GTBank rose by 60 kobo to finish at N27.50k per unit, while Lafarge Africa increased its share price by 45 kobo to end at N14.85k per unit.

Conversely, NASCON led the decliners’ table after losing 30 kobo to close at N12.70k per unit and was followed by Dangote Flour, which went down by 10 kobo to trade at N22 per share.

Flour mills and NPF Microfinance Bank lost 5 kobo each to settle at N13.20k per share and N1.11k per unit respectively, while Unity Ban depreciated by 3 kobo to finish at 67 kobo per share.

During trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 273.11 points to finish at 27,426.64 points, while the market capitalization appreciated by N141.3 billion to close at N13.351 trillion.

Despite the impressive general performance of the market, the level of transactions significantly dropped as the volume of shares traded by investors went down by 45.43 percent to 115.4 million from 211.5 million, while the value of the trades went down by 41.08 percent to N854.2 million from N1.5 billion.

Access Bank was investors’ darling on Thursday, with the bank trading 17.0 million units of its stocks worth N119.3 million, while Transcorp followed with 14.7 million units sold for N15.0 million.

Union Bank traded 10.1 million equities for N70.4 million, FBN Holdings transacted 10.0 million shares valued at N50.4 million, while GTBank exchanged 7.3 million units worth N198.8 million.