By Dipo Olowookere
The total value of equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reduced by N6 billion or 0.04 per cent on Thursday as a result of two major factors.
First, it was because of the soft-profit taking by investors at the market, while the second factor was the delisting of shares of Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc.
The company is no longer trading its equities on the exchange after it was bought over by Verod Capital through Kanuri LUR Limited.
As a result, the market capitalisation of the NSE, which closed on Wednesday at N16.068 trillion, ended yesterday at N16.062 trillion.
Though the All-Share Index depreciated during the session, it only went down marginally by 0.01 per cent or 2.96 points to 30,738.92 points from 30,741.88 points.
Business Post reports that the major contributor to the fall recorded at the bourse on Thursday was the losses printed by the insurance and consumer goods sectors, which slipped by 0.65 per cent and 0.53 per cent respectively.
They overpowered the slight gains posted by the banking (+0.06 per cent) and the oil/gas (+0.04 per cent). The industrial goods counter closed flat during the trading day.
However, there was an improvement in the level of activity on Thursday as the trading volume rose by 50.16 per cent to 430.1 million units from 286.4 million units, the trading value appreciated by 113.89 per cent to N6.6 billion from N3.1 billion and the number of deals rose by 49.50 per cent to 4,319 from 2,889.
The demand for FBN Holdings was high yesterday and made the stock the most active after trading 61.5 million units valued at N390.6 million.
BUA Cement traded 50.3 million units worth N2.3 billion, Access Bank transacted 46.2 million shares for N373.7 million, Transcorp sold 38.5 million stocks valued at N29.6 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 36.0 million equities worth N787.4 million.
The market breadth was positive on Thursday following the 18 price gainers and 17 price losers recorded at the close of trading activities at 2.30pm.
Africa Prudential was the highest price gainer. The stock appreciated by 53 kobo to settle at N6.20 per unit and was trailed by Unilever Nigeria, which gained 40 kobo to close at N14.10 per share.
GTBank grew stronger by 20 kobo to N32.30 per unit, FBN Holdings rose by 15 kobo to N6.45 per share, while Learn Africa gained 10 kobo to close at N1.15 per share.
The losers table was led by Flour Mills, which lost 80 kobo to trade at N27.60 per unit and was followed by International Breweries, which fell by 40 kobo to finish at N6.50 per share.
Fidson depreciated by 30 kobo to N4.10 per share, Union Bank declined by 20 kobo to N5.30 per unit, while GlaxoSmithKline went down by 10 kobo to N5.80 per share.
