By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained its positive momentum on Wednesday, gaining 0.55 percent at the close of trading activities.
The bullish trend was mainly influenced by gains recorded by stocks in the banking and consumer goods sectors.
At the close of business in the midweek trading, the All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 205.47 points to finish at 37,709.20 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N71.6 billion to settle at N13.13 trillion, and the year-to-date return ended at 40.32 percent.
Business Post reports that the market breadth ended positive today as the stock market recorded 32 price gainers and 8 price losers.
Nestle was Wednesday’s highest price gainer, appreciating by N25 to settle at N1315 per share, and was trailed by Forte Oil, which added N2.5k to its share value to close at N43.20k per share.
Unilever rose by N1.79k to finish at N41.89k per share, UAC of Nigeria moved up by 60k to end at N17.50k per share, while Cadbury garnered 58k to finish at N12.33k per share.
On the flip side, Mobil emerged the biggest price loser, depreciating by N2.85k to close at N159.65k per share.
It was followed by Lafarge, which went down by N1 to finish at N49 per share, and PZ Cussons, which declined by 47k to close at N22.25k per share.
NASCON shed 25k of its share value to end at N15.35k per share, while Stanbic IBTC deflated by 5k to wrap the day at N41.80k per share.
Unlike yesterday, the volume and value of shares traded by investors today depreciated.
At the close of business, a total of 441.8 million shares worth N4.1 billion exchanged hands in 4,263 deals, against 1.1 billion units transacted on Tuesday in 4,089 deals valued at N4.8 billion.
WAPIC remained the most traded stock in terms of volume at the market today, exchanging a total of 77 million shares worth N38.5 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 60.4 million shares for N119.2 million, while Tantalizers traded 44 million shares at N22 million.
FBN Holdings exchanged 42.3 million shares valued at N302.3 million, while FCMB transacted 31.7 million shares for N35.2 million.
