NSE Index Extends Rally by 0.14% at Midweek

By Dipo Olowookere

The stock market in Nigeria remained bullish on Wednesday, closing 0.14 per cent higher as investors cherry-picked some value stocks trading at low prices.

This increased the All-Share Index (ASI) by 34.83 points to 25,171.32 points from 25,136.49 points and then expanded the market capitalisation by N18 billion to N13.131 trillion from N13.113 trillion.

But despite the bullish performance of the market at the midweek session, the trading activity was weak as the volume of shares traded by investors reduced significantly by 33.58 per cent to 180.0 million units from 271.0 million units.

Also, the value of the equities transacted went down by 37.56 per cent to N1.5 billion from N2.5 billion, while the number of deals reduced by 15.84 per cent to 3,108 from 3,693.

Zenith Bank was the bride of investors yesterday, emerging as the most active stock after trading 35.9 million units worth N605.2 million.

Access Bank transacted 29.1 million shares for N187.4 million, Transcorp traded 16.5 million stocks for N10.1 million, UBA sold 12.5 million equities worth N83.2 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 10.5 million shares valued at N52.6 million.

Business Post reports that the market breadth was at equilibrium yesterday following the equal number of price gainers and losers, 13 apiece.

GTBank led the gainers chart after adding 30 kobo to its share price to finish at N25.20 per share, while International Breweries gained 20 kobo to close at N3 per share.

Studio Press appreciated by 18 kobo to settle at N1.98 per unit, Zenith Bank improved by 15 kobo to end at N16.90 per unit, while UBA expanded by 5 kobo to N6.70 per unit.

Conversely, CAP emerged the heaviest price loser on Wednesday, shedding N1.70 from its share value to close at N15.30 per unit.

PZ Cussons went down by 40 kobo to end at N3.85 per share, GlaxoSmithKline lost 35 kobo to finish at N4.85 per unit, Guinness Nigeria decreased by 30 kobo to N15.20 per share, while Africa Prudential depreciated by 12 kobo to N4.28 per share.

A look at the performance of the five main sectors of the market during the session indicated that only the industrial goods space finished in red, down marginally by 0.04 per cent.

The banking index was the biggest riser with 0.81 per cent growth, the insurance counter rose by 0.41 per cent, the consumer goods counter improved by 0.19 per cent, while the energy index closed flat.