By Dipo Olowookere
The eight straight losing streaks on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) came to an abrupt end on Friday after the market marginally gained 0.06 percent.
It was observed that the uptrend was influenced by gains recorded by some large-cap stocks on the local bourse, led by Forte Oil and Dangote Cement.
The All-Share Index (ASI), which closed the previous session at 30,029.15 points, went up by 17.55 points to finish at 30,046.70 points.
Similarly, the market capitalisation, which ended on Thursday at N13.225 trillion, appreciated by N8 billion to settle at N13.233 trillion.
A look at the sector performance showed that the oil and gas index recorded the highest gain, going up by 1.12 percent. It was followed by the insurance sector, which rose by 0.30 percent, while the banking industry rose by 0.23 percent.
However, the consumer goods sector depreciated by 1.04 percent, while the industrial sector declined by 0.21 percent.
An analysis of the market breadth showed positivity, with a total of 18 price gainers and 12 price losers.
As earlier stated, Forte Oil led the price gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of N2.65k to finish at N29.40k per share.
Dangote Cement increased its share value by N1 to close at N184 per unit, while Nigerian Breweries added 50 kobo to its share price to end at N58 per share.
MTN Nigeria also gained 50 kobo on Friday to finish at N135.60k per unit, while GTBank appreciated by 20 kobo to close at N31 per share.
On the other side, it was a bearish day for Nestle Nigeria as its share price fell by N20 to close at N1430 per unit.
It was followed by International Breweries, which dropped N1.45k to close at N18.55k per share, and Lafarge Africa, which went down by 25 kobo to end at N9.75k per unit, while both Zenith Bank and Dangote Sugar lost 10 kobo each to settle at N20 and N10.60k respectively.
Business Post reports that despite the market pointing northwards after the close of business yesterday, the activity chart was in red.
The volume and value of shares transacted by investors went down by 40.12 percent and 52.47 percent respectively, with the volume going down to 145.3 million units from 242.6 million, while the value dropped to N2.8 billion from N6 billion.
GTBank led the chart with a turnover of 55.7 million shares sold for N1.7 billion, with Access Bank trailing after trading 16 million equities worth N100.8 million.
UBA transacted 7.8 million shares valued at N47.5 million, while Fidelity Bank exchanged 7 million equities for N12.2 million, with Zenith Bank selling 6.5 million units for N129.9 million.
