By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian stock market appreciated by 0.20 per cent on Monday on the back of bargain hunting in United Capital, MTN Nigeria, GTCO, Zenith Bank and 32 other equities.
United Capital and RT Briscoe were the highest price gainers yesterday, rising by 10.00 per cent each to close at N13.20 and 66 kobo respectively.
Africa Prudential improved by 9.56 per cent to trade at N7.45, Academy Press rose by 9.50 per cent to sell for N1.96, while Champion Breweries grew by 8.78 per cent to N2.23.
As a result of the buying pressure on these shares, the All-Share Index (ASI) moved higher by 93.43 points to 47,233.91 points to 47,140.48 points, while the market capitalisation expanded by N51 billion to N25.457 trillion from N25.406 trillion.
Also, the other key indices were good on Monday as the banking index appreciated by 0.66 per cent, the consumer goods index rose by 0.37 per cent, the insurance counter gained 0.22 per cent, while the industrial goods space went up by 0.01 per cent, with the energy counter closing flat.
Business Post reports that despite the impressive performance of the exchange yesterday, there were 17 price losers led by Juli with a decline of 9.76 per cent to trade at 74 kobo.
Multiverse went down by 8.00 per cent to 23 kobo, Mutual Benefits Assurance lost 7.14 per cent to sell for 26 kobo, Flour Mills declined by 4.56 per cent to N33.50, while Honeywell Flour depreciated by 4.23 per cent to N3.85.
In terms of the level of activity, the trading volume decreased by 0.76 per cent to 421.5 million units from 424.7 million units, the trading value declined by 35.30 per cent to N4.2 billion from N6.5 billion, while the number of deals increased by 29.56 per cent to 5,961 deals from 4,601 deals.
Transcorp ended the session as the busiest stock with the sale of 99.3 million units valued at N118.5 million and was followed by Zenith Bank, which traded 46.3 million units worth N1.3 billion.
United Capital transacted 31.6 million equities worth N416.8 million, UBA exchanged 27.0 million stocks for N234.0 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 23.8 million shares for N72.4 million.
