By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the last trading day of the week on a positive note with the 0.37 percent growth recorded on Friday, reducing the year-to-date loss to 16 percent.
Gains recorded by stocks in the banking sector as well as those in the oil and gas industry contributed to the bullish session.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 118.29 points to close at 32,124.94 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N43 billion to end at N11.728 trillion.
But despite the uptrend, the volume of transactions reduced by 32.79 percent from 355.8 million to 239.1 million, while the value dropped by 41.34 percent from N4.9 billion to N2.9 billion.
As expected, the financial stocks dominated the trading day with a total of 209 million shares sold for N832 million, while the consumer goods equities trailed with 13 million units transacted for N412 million.
Business Post reports that more shares of FCMB were traded at the market yesterday, emerging as the most transacted stock after selling 108.6 million units worth N165.7 million.
FBN Holdings traded 35.6 million shares valued at N274.3 million, while Fidelity Bank exchanged 10.6 million shares worth N21.2 million.
Diamond Bank sold 10.3 million equities for N12.5 million, while WAPIC exchanged 7.6 million shares for N3 million.
Seplat emerged yesterday as the highest price gainer after appreciating by N9.50k to settle at N625 per share.
It was followed by Total Nigeria, which gained N2 to close at N200 per share, and Dangote Cement, which rose by N1.90k to end at N204.90k per share.
Access Bank appreciated by 45 kobo to close at N8.35k per share, while Zenith Bank moved up by 35 kobo to finish at N23.55k per share.
