By Dipo Olowookere
There was a sustained bargain hunting at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday, resulting into the 0.27 percent growth posted at the close of trading activities.
This was boosted by gains recorded by 20 stocks, which overpowered the losses printed by 18 equities drawn from different sectors of the market.
Business Post reports that the market capitalisation of the NSE increased yesterday by N48 billion to N13.242 trillion from N13.194 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 67.28 points to 25,383.43 points from 25,316.15 points.
Dangote Cement was the highest price gainer of the session, adding N2 to its share price to jump to N141 per share, while GTBank followed with a price appreciation of 55 kobo to sell at N25.10 per share.
MTN Nigeria improved by 50 kobo to trade at N116.50 per unit, NASCON improved by 20 kobo to sell at N11.30 per share, while SAHCO gained 18 kobo to quote at N2.07 per unit.
Conversely, UAC Nigeria led the losers’ chart with a price depreciation of 60 kobo to sell at N8.40 per unit, while Union Bank trailed with a 55 kobo loss to close at N6.15 per share.
PZ Cussons depreciated by 20 kobo to finish at N5.30 per unit, Lafarge Africa was punctured by 20 kobo to N11.45 per unit, while May & Baker lost 18 kobo to settle at N3.20 per share.
A look at the sectoral performance showed that the insurance sector was the higher riser, gaining 0.44 percent and was followed by the industrial goods space, which appreciated by 0.20 percent.
However, the consumer goods counter lost 0.13 percent yesterday, the banking sector declined by 0.09 percent, while the oil/gas space closed flat.
On the activity chart, transactions moved in different directions as both the volume and value of trades closed green, with the number of deals in red.
A total of 377.9 million equities worth N6.1 billion exchanged hands in 4,585 deals on Tuesday compared with the 253.3 million shares worth N2.7 billion transacted in 4,775 deals on Monday.
This indicated that while the volume and value of traded stocks rose by 49.18 percent and 128.87 percent respectively, the number of deals depreciated by 3.98 percent.
A further analysis showed that Nigerian Breweries was the most attractive stock to investors during the trading day, selling 50.5 million units valued at N2.2 billion.
GTBank transacted 40.5 million shares worth N1.0 billion, Zenith Bank traded 34.9 million stocks for N599.0 million, AIICO Insurance exchanged 29.5 million equities valued at N31.1 million, while FBN Holdings sold 27.7 million shares for N151.1 million.
