Stock Market Sustains Gains With 0.19% Rise

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The positive streak recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was sustained on Thursday as bulls continue to dominate the market.

Business Post correspondent reports that the stock market appreciated today by 0.19 percent due to the performances of Nigerian Breweries, Guinness and 24 other stocks.

At the close activities on Thursday, the year-to-date return finished at -2.63 percent, while the All-Share Index (ASI) added 50.01 points to end at 26,166.80 points and the market capitalisation improved by N18 billion to close at N9.045 trillion.

Our correspondent further reports that Zenith Bank led the activity chart with a total of 42.2 million shares traded at N661.6 million, while First Bank trailed with a total of 41.2 million units sold at N145.7 million.

Also, UBA exchanged a total of 25 million shares worth N159.3 million, while GTBank transacted 16.3 million shares valued at N435.8 million.

In all, at the end of trading activities on the floor of the NSE on Thursday, investors bought and sold a total of N255.6 million shares valued at N2.5 billion executed in 5,106 deals.

On the price movement chart, Nigerian Breweries gained N3.99k to finish at N128 per share, while Guinness added N2 to close at N63 per share.

Furthermore, International Breweries appreciated by N1.66k to end at N19.50k per share, Oando rose by 29k to close at N6.83k per share and Zenith Bank progressed by 23k to finish at N15.93 per share.

On the other hand, Stanbic IBTC fell by N2.64k to end at N24.81k per share and Lafarge went down by N1.32k to finish at N49.60k per share.

Unilever dropped 50k to close at N33 per share, Flour Mill depreciated by 48k to finish at N17.50k per share, while Forte Oil declined by 44k to end at N43.56k per share.

Investors are upbeats that the positive trend recorded by the market since the beginning of this week would be sustained tomorrow, the last trading day for the week.