By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued its bullish run on Wednesday, appreciating further by 1.89 percent at the close of business to finish in the green territory.
Business Post reports that gains recorded by stocks in the industrial as well as the oil and gas sectors, especially Dangote Cement, propelled the equity market appreciation at the mid-week trading.
By the time market activities were brought to a close, the market capitalisation increased by N297.5 billion to settle at N16.080 trillion, an all-time high.
In addition, the All-Share Index (ASI) progressed by 830.52 basis points to finish at 44,885.24 basis points, nudging the Year-to-Date (YtD) gain forward to 17.37 percent.
Like the previous day, the market breadth on Wednesday closed positive with 44 price gainers and 19 price losers recorded at the close of transactions.
Mobil was the biggest price gainer at the market yesterday, adding N16.50k to its share value to settle at N216 per share.
Dangote Cement, which followed, gained N13 to close at N273 per share, while Guinness Nigeria appreciated by N5.70k to finish at N119.70k per share.
Beta Glass rose by N2.69k to end at N56.56k per share, while Conoil went up by N1.97k to settle at N41.38k per share.
At the other end, Nigerian Breweries suffered the highest price loss after depreciating by N3.44k to close at N146.5k per share.
It was followed by NASCON, which fell by N1.10k to settle at N21 per share, and Zenith Bank, which slumped by N1.1k to end at N32.50k per share.
Cadbury sank by 80k to finish at N15.31k per share, while Dangote Flour declined by 39k to settle at N15.95k per share.
Business Post further reports that the volume and value of shares traded by investors on Wednesday appreciated by 51.20 percent and 63.96 percent respectively as the huge demand for shares of tier-two banks continued.
At the close of trading activities yesterday, Transcorp emerged the most traded equity in terms of volume, exchanging a total of 140.6 million units worth N358.2 million.
Sterling Bank, which emerged second, sold 104.3 million units for N252.5 million, and Wema Bank, which came third, traded 95.5 million units valued at N88.8 million.
Diamond Bank transacted 87 million shares for N275.2 million, while Access Bank exchanged 85.5 million shares worth N1.1 billion.
In all, a total of 960.8 million shares were traded by investors on Wednesday in 8,866 deals valued at N12.5 billion compared with 635.4 million equities bought and sold at the stock market on Tuesday in 7,331 deals worth N7.6 billion.
Adedapo Adesanya