By Dipo Olowookere
Equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a positive note on Monday as investors, with glad tidings, received news of the growth recorded in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of this year.
Data released by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) this morning revealed that the country’s GDP increased by 1.4 percent last quarter, making it the second consecutive positive growth since the emergence of the economy from recession in the second quarter of 2017.
Business Post reports that this development left transactions on the NSE to improve today by 0.24 percent, leaving the year-to-date return to stand at 36.90 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 89.02 points to settle at 36,792.60 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N30.98 billion to close at N12.81 trillion.
Also, at the close of business today, the market breadth ended positive with 17 price gainers and 15 price losers.
Nestle emerged the highest price gainer on Monday with N4.87k added to its share value to close at N1255.90k per share.
It was closely trailed by PZ Cussons, which rose by N2.30k to finish at N24.79k per share, and NASCON, which advanced by N1.39k to end at N15.89k per share.
Zenith Bank increased by 86k to finish at N24.98k per share, while Dangote Sugar improved by 62k to end at N14.95k per share.
But at the other end, Forte Oil was the biggest price loser, shedding N4.73k to settle at N43.89k per share.
It was followed by International Breweries, which fell by 95k to close at N50.85k per share, and Unilever, which depreciated by 50k to end at N37 per share.
GTBank declined by 40k to finish at N42.60k per share, while Nigerian Breweries went down by 30k to close at N138.50k per share.
Our correspondent reports that Custodian and Allied was investors’ toast today, exchanging 40.5 million shares worth N151.7 million.
FBN Holdings sold 27.5 million shares for N190 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 23.5 million shares at N37.5 million.
Diamond Bank exchanged 16.9 million shares worth N19.4 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 12.8 million shares valued at N319 million.
At the close of transactions on Monday, investors traded a total of 208.7 million shares worth N2.5 billion in 2,993 deals against 1.8 billion shares traded last Friday in 3,097 deals valued at N6.3 billion.
