By Dipo Olowookere
Life was brought back on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after the market closed in the green territory.
Gains recorded by stocks in the oil and gas, banking and consumer goods sectors helped the NSE Index rise by 0.18 percent yesterday, reducing the year-to-date loss to 14.91 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 59.28 points to close at 32,540.17 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N22 billion to settle at N11.880 trillion.
Seplat recorded the highest price appreciation yesterday with N22 added to its value to settle at N622 per share.
It was followed by Nestle Nigeria, which gained N19.50k to close at N1400 per share, and Nigerian Breweries, which went up by N4 to end at N93 per share.
PZ Cussons rose by N1 to finish at N13.50k per share, while International Breweries appreciated by 95 kobo to quote at N30.95k per share.
At the other end of the divide, it was not a good trading day for Dangote Cement as the company’s shares suffered a N5 loss to close at N205 per share.
Forte Oil declined by N1 to end at N21.50k per share, while Ecobank fell by 50 kobo to settle at N18 per share.
Cadbury Nigeria went down by 35 kobo to close at N9.05k per share, while Axa Mansard dropped 20 kobo to finish at N1.86k per share.
Business Post reports that the mood at the market was lively, with investors happy to increase stocks in their portfolios.
When the market closed for the day, investors traded a total of 523.4 million shares worth N10.6 billion compared with the 226 million equities worth N2.3 billion transacted the previous session. This showed a 131.58 percent rise in the volume of the trades on Friday and 351.80 increase in the value of yesterday’s trades.
As usual, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 494.5 million shares exchanged for N9.6 billion, while the Conglomerates industry followed with 9.8 million equities worth N22 million transacted by investors.
GTBank emerged the most traded stock at the NSE on Friday, trading 208.5 million units worth N6.7 billion.
It was followed by Zenith Bank, which sold 82.5 million units valued at N1.7 billion, and UBA, which traded 66.2 million shares valued at N528.5 million.
Access Bank transacted 61.5 million equities for N492.3 million, while Wema Bank exchanged 21.2 million units of its shares worth N12.1 million.
