NSE Market Indices Soar by 1.28% as Investors Gain N174b

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reversed yesterday’s loss to close positive on Thursday, recording 1.28 percent growth to finish in the green territory.

At the close of trades today, the Year-to-Date (YtD) settled higher at 1.13 percent as the market breadth finished positive with 50 price gainers and seven price losers.

Also, the volume and value of transactions broadly increased on Thursday by 39.95 percent and 83.24 percent respectively.

A total of 825 million shares were traded by investors today in 6,220 deals worth N3.9 billion compared with 589.6 million shares valued at N2.1 billion transacted in 4,366 deals.

A look at the market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 488.84 points to finish at 38,676.12 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N174 billion to settle at N13.764 trillion.

On the price movement chart on Thursday, Seplat emerged the highest price gainer, increasing by N23.78k to close at N650 percent.

Forte Oil went up by N2.10k to settle at N44.10k per share, and International Breweries gained N2 to end at N56.99k per share.

Furthermore, Lafarge rose by N2 to finish at N49.10k per share, while GTBank garnered N1.54k to close at N42.34k per share.

On the flip side, Nestle was the biggest loser on Thursday, shedding N55.99k of its share value to settle at N1500 per share.

Mobil lost N6.80k at the close of business today to close at N170 per share, while PZ Cussons fell by 80k to end at N20.40k per share.

Custodian depreciated by 19k today to close at N3.79k per share, and NEM Insurance went down by 8k to finish at N1.57k per share.

On the activity chart, Diamond Bank sold the highest volume of shares, trading a total of 169 million shares worth N314.2 million.

It was followed by FCMB, which sold 163.3 million shares valued at N297.6 million, and Transcorp, which exchanged 144.9 million shares for N241.8 million.

Skye Bank transacted 89.3 million shares worth N50.2 million, while Sterling Bank sold 37.8 million shares at N45.8 million.