Stock Exchange Extends Gains by N66bn

By Dipo Olowookere

Equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further appreciated on Thursday by 0.51 percent on renewed buy interest in stocks across most sectors of the market.

Business Post reports that apart from the industrial goods index, which went down by 0.18 percent at the session, every other sector closed in green. The consumer goods index rose by 1.20 percent, the banking index by 1.10 percent, insurance index by 0.34 percent and the oil and gas benchmark by 0.15 percent.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) improved by 135.8 points to 26,569.80 points to 26,434.00 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N66 billion to N12.824 trillion from N12.758 trillion.

Presco was the best performing stock at the market on Thursday, gaining N3.60 to close at N41.45 per unit, while Nigerian Breweries rose by N1.45 to finish at N52.70 per share.

GTBank appreciated by N1 to settle at N29 per unit, Dangote Sugar improved by 90 kobo to end at N16 per share, while Cadbury Nigeria increased by 85 kobo to trade at N9.90 per unit.

For the worst performing equity, this was Union Bank, which suffered a 30 kobo loss to close at N6.30 per share and was closely followed by Cutix, which fell by 14 kobo to finish at N1.35 per share.

Unilever Nigeria went down by 10 kobo to finish at N18.40 per unit, Lafarge Africa depreciated by 10 kobo to close at N13.50 per unit, while Neimeth declined by 7 kobo to end at 66 kobo per share.

A total of 319.7 million shares worth N3.1 billion were traded by investors on Thursday in 2,503 deals compared with the 180.2 million units valued at N3.0 billion transacted on Wednesday in 2,951 deals.

Union Diagnostic was the most traded stock at the market yesterday, transacting 187.0 million shares worth N41.1 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 19.8n million shares valued at N40.9 million.

Dangote Cement exchanged 12.3 million equities valued at N1.7 billion, Zenith Bank traded 10.9 million shares for N201.7 million, while UBA transacted 8.4 million units worth N57.4 million.