Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
A total of N224 billion was gained by investors at the nation’s stock market on Wednesday as the interest in the market continues to rise due to the low yield environment in the fixed income space.
The gain increased the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to N18.167 trillion yesterday from N17.943 trillion the previous day. It further expanded the All-Share Index (ASI) by 428.44 points to 34,769.00 points from 34,340.56 points.
Business Post reports that more transactions were recorded at the midweek session and resulted in the 19.02 per cent rise in the trading volume to 434.9 million shares from 365.4 million shares traded on Tuesday.
Also, the value of stocks transacted by investors rose by 47.35 per cent to N6.9 billion from N4.7 billion, while the number of deals increased by 11.13 per cent to 7,029 deals from 6,325 deals.
The majority of the trades were from the banking stocks, though Transcorp was the most active equity at the session, transacting 84.5 million units worth N84.3 million.
Zenith Bank traded 59.2 million stocks for N1.5 billion, Access Bank exchanged 29.9 million equities valued at N258.5 million, UBA traded 26.2 million shares for N221.1 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 25.6 million equities valued at N189.9 million.
The market breadth was positive on Wednesday with 37 gainers as against 11 losers and Airtel Africa was the highest price gainer of the session with the addition of N10 to its share price to close at N535 per unit.
Dangote Cement gained N5.20 to trade at N205 per share, Flour Mills appreciated by N2.50 to end at N27.90 per share, Julius Berger gained N1.20 to sell at N18.50 per share, while Dangote Sugar appreciated by N1.15 to finish at N20.65 per unit.
On the other hand, CAP was the worst-performing stock yesterday as its equity price went down by 65 kobo to N21.50 per share.
International Breweries depreciated by 40 kobo to N6.55 per unit, Oando lost 19 kobo to close at N2.71 per share, Union Bank declined by 10 kobo to N5.80 per unit, while Trans-Nationwide Express depreciated by 9 kobo to 87 kobo per share.
Apart from the energy sector, which lost 0.56 per cent on Wednesday, every other industry closed positive with the banking space the best-performer as a result of the 1.59 per cent growth it recorded.
The industrial goods counter gained 1.58 per cent, the insurance space grew by 1.38 per cent, while the consumer goods sector appreciated by 0.74 per cent.
