By Dipo Olowookere
Gains in Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria and nine others helped the stock exchange to close 1.40 per cent higher on Thursday.
During the market yesterday, the leading cement stock appreciated by N12.20 to settle at N134.20 per unit, while the foremost telco equity gained N1 to end at N120 per share.
Other top gainers on Thursday were Custodian Investment, which improved by 15 kobo to N5 per unit; Africa Prudential, which rose by 11 kobo to N4.12 per share; and Access Bank, which increased by 5 kobo to N6.20 per share.
According to data from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the market breadth closed at equilibrium yesterday with 11 price gainers and price losers each.
Business Post reports that while Dangote Cement was taking the market up on one side, its rival, BUA Cement, was pulling it down at the other end, but the former overcame. BUA Cement, which closed at N40 per unit, lost N1.45 to lead the losers’ table.
Dangote Sugar depreciated by 30 kobo to sell at N11.70 per share, Neimeth went down by 10 kobo to N1.40 per unit, Ecobank lost 5 kobo to finish at N4.20 per share, while GTBank declined by 5 kobo to close at N21.50 per unit.
The activity chart was in red yesterday following the 59.20 per cent drop in the total number of stocks transacted by investors. The value of the trades also went down by 53.32 per cent, while the number of deals depreciated by 8.18 per cent.
A total of 164.3 million stocks worth N2.1 billion exchanged hands in 2,986 deals on Thursday compared with 402.6 million units valued at N4.6 billion traded in 3,252 deals on Wednesday.
FBN Holdings was the most traded stock during the session, transacting 42.7 million units valued at N211.3 million, while Custodian Investment, which followed, traded 20.0 million shares for N100.2 million.
Zenith Bank transacted 17.9 million stocks worth N279.0 million, GTBank sold 11.7 million equities for N251.2 million, while UBA traded 8.4 million stocks valued at N51.5 million.
An analysis of the sectorial performance yesterday indicated that the industrial goods sector gained 3.26 per cent, while the insurance counter appreciated by 0.12 per cent.
However, the consumer goods index depreciated by 0.23 per cent, while the banking space fell by 0.08 per cent, with the energy counter going down by 0.04 per cent.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 338.74 points to 24,512.27 points from 24,173.53 points, while the market capitalisation grew by N177 billion to N12.787 trillion from N12.610 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya