By Dipo Olowookere
The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) increased by N117 billion or 0.90 percent at Tuesday’s trading session to close at N13.316 trillion in contrast to N13.199 trillion of the previous day.
The value of the stocks listed on the local exchange was strengthened during the session as a result of the sustained buying pressure from investors, which improved the All-Share Index (ASI) by 247.25 points to 27,586.93 points from 27,339.68 points.
Again, the level of activity finished mixed yesterday with the volume of transactions reducing by 14.23 percent to 446.4 million from 520.4 million and the value of trades rising by 8.76 percent to N5.8 billion from N5.4 billion.
It was observed that the trades were dominated by banking stocks, with UBA emerging as the most active, selling a total of 86.8 million units of its shares valued at N709.4 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 73.2 million units worth N1.5 billion, FBN Holdings transacted 34.7 million shares for N241.0 million, Access Bank sold 27.4 million shares valued at N297.4 million, while FCMB traded 23.7 million equities worth N48.9 million.
The price movement chart had Dangote Cement topping the gainers’ table at the close of business as shares of the company appreciated by N4 to settle at N150 per unit.
Zenith Bank gained N1 to finish at N21 per share, Presco rose by 65 kobo to settle at N48.15 per unit, NASCON increased its share value by 55 kobo to end at N14.50 per unit, while PZ Cussons went up by 50 kobo to close at N5.60 per share.
At the other end, Forte Oil led the decliners’ chart, going down by N1.10 to close at N16.90 per unit, while GTBank dropped 50 kobo to settle at N30.50 per share.
NCR lost 45 kobo to settle at N4.05 per share, MTN Nigeria depreciated by 40 kobo to finish at N107.60 per unit, while International Breweries declined by 10 kobo to trade at N9.20 per share.
Adedapo Adesanya