By Dipo Olowookere
The local stock market recorded a gain on Tuesday after opening bearish on the first trading day of this week on Monday.
This was mainly due to activities of bargain hunters on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as they take advantage of the low prices of equities to shore up their portfolios.
The All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated today by 674.27 points to close at 33,114.44 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N242 billion to settle at N12.089 trillion.
Business Post reports that at the close of business on Tuesday, there were 26 price gainers and 20 price losers.
Nestle Nigeria, which recorded the highest price appreciation, added N95 to its share price to close at N1495 per share.
Dangote Cement, which followed, rose by N5 to finish at N210 per share, while Stanbic IBTC increased by N2 to settle at N44 per share.
International Breweries also gained N2 to close at N32.50k per share, while GTBank advanced by N1.75k to settle at N37 per share.
Conversely, Total Nigeria claimed the number one spot on the losers’ chart after shedding N9.70k of its value to settle at N180 per share.
This was trailed by Mobil Oil Nigeria, which fell by N3.80k to close at N175.20k per share, and Presco, which went down by N3.45k to end at N56.55k per share.
Zenith Bank declined by 55 kobo to finish at N20.45k per share, while Lafarge dropped 50 kobo to quote at N22.50k per share.
While the volume of shares transacted by investors on Tuesday increased by 17 percent, the value went down slightly by 0.70 percent.
A total of 222.9 million equities worth N3.28 billion exchanged hands in 3,327 deals on Tuesday in contrast to the 190.67 million shares valued at N3.3 billion traded in 2,942 deals on Monday.
Business Post reports that at the market today, shares of Zenith Bank, International Breweries, UBA, Fidelity Bank and Diamond Bank were the most traded by investors. with two of these five most traded equities, Zenith Bank and Diamond Bank, closing in the red territory.
Modupe Gbadeyanka