By Dipo Olowookere
Nigerian stocks recorded a marginal gain of 0.04 per cent on Monday, with 25 equities closing in green, while 17 shares closed in red.
Linkage Assurance and Transcorp were the best-performing stocks yesterday as they appreciated by 10.00 per cent each to settle at 88 kobo and 88 kobo respectively.
Cornerstone Insurance gained 9.62 per cent to trade at 57 kobo, Fidson grew by 9.09 per cent to N4.80, while Unity Bank appreciated by 8.47 per cent to 64 kobo.
On the flip side, Conoil was the heaviest price loser with a decline of 9.33 per cent to quote at N17.00, followed by Ikeja Hotels, which dropped 9.09 per cent to sell for N1.00.
Further, Sovereign Trust Insurance depreciated by 8.00 per cent to 23 kobo, NAHCO went down by 6.67 per cent to N2.10, while Jaiz Bank depreciated by 4.76 per cent to 60 kobo.
Business Post observed that the insurance and industrial goods sectors appreciated by 2.22 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively on Monday, while the energy, banking and consumer goods indices decreased by 0.34 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased slightly by 16.70 points to 39,318.52 points from 39,301.82 points, while the market capitalisation expanded by N8 billion to N20.577 trillion from N20.569 trillion.
During the session, investors traded 329.7 million shares worth N2.1 billion in 4,308 deals compared with the 287.0 million equities worth N3.0 billion transacted previously in 3,578 deals.
Transcorp closed the session as the most active with the sale of 92.5 million units of its shares valued at N81.3 million with FBN Holdings trading 23.9 million units worth N177.3 million.
Axa Mansard Insurance transacted 20.1 million stocks for N18.4 million, Access Bank traded 17.1 million equities worth N129.0 million, while GTBank exchanged 16.4 million shares for N513.6 million.
Adedapo Adesanya