By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian Stock Market closed positive on Thursday amid continued massive sell-off of Diamond Bank shares at the market.
Since last Friday, a total of 943 million shares of Diamond Bank have been traded by investors on the floor of the NSE.
Today, it emerged the most transacted stock again, exchanging a total 308.9 million units worth N304.4 million with its share price slightly appreciated by 5 percent to N1.5k per share from N1 per share it closed yesterday.
Other active equities were UBA, which traded 25.8 million shares valued at N237.2 million; Zenith Bank, which sold 23 million shares for N579.3 million; Transcorp, which exchanged 14 million shares worth N20.4 million; and Fidelity Bank, which traded 9.6 million shares at N13.5 million.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) grew today by 79.42 points to settle at 36,732.24 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N27.3 billion to close at N12.6 trillion.
Unlike the previous day, when the market breadth closed flat, it finished positive today with 30 gainers and 13 losers.
Nestle emerged the highest advancer, increasing by N6.88k to close at N1240 per share; and was trailed by Stanbic IBTC, which improved by N1.14k to finish at N41.19k per share; and Nigerian Breweries, which progressed by N1.8k to end at N165.8k per share.
Forte Oil gained N1 today to settle at N50 per share, while Flour Mills of Nigeria added 51k to its share value to expand to N29.71k per share.
At the other end, Presco shed the highest amount at the market on Thursday, losing 83k to settle at N67 per share.
It was followed by GTBank, which fell by 30k to close at N41.70k per share, and Union Bank, which crashed by 25k to end at N5.75k per share.
Fidson went down by 16k to finish at N3.34k per share, while University Press Plc closed at N2.33k per share after losing 12k.
The volume and value of shares appreciated today with a total of 443.7 million shares worth N3.2 billion traded by investors compared with 336.4 million shares valued at N1.8 billion transacted yesterday at the market.
