By Dipo Olowookere
The positive momentum recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday when the market rebounded by 0.17 percent was sustained on Wednesday.
At the close transactions yesterday, the equity market was pointing north by 0.86 percent with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns expanding to 6.81 percent.
This was buoyed by gains recorded by blue-chip equities in the Industrial goods and Consumer goods sectors. They were enough to offset the losses recorded by stocks in the Banking and Insurance industries.
When market activities were halted yesterday afternoon, a total of 27 counters appreciated in price compared with the 19 price fallers. This left the market breadth to close positive.
Mobil Nigeria was the biggest price gainer at the market on Wednesday, appreciating by N13.50k to close at N192 per share.
It was followed by Dangote Cement, which rose by N5 to settle at N260 per share, and International Breweries, which grew by N2.50k to finish at N54 per share.
Lafarge advanced by N1.25k to end at N43.65k per share, while Unilever Nigeria moved up by 80k to wrap the day at N53.90k per share.
On the flip side, Beta Glass was the heaviest price loser after shedding N3.75k of its share value to settle at N71.95k per share.
It was trailed by Forte Oil, which went down by N1.10k to close at N37.50k per share, and PZ Cussons, which declined by 45k to end at N23 per share.
Red Star Express went down by 30k yesterday to finish at N5.70k per share, while Dangote Flour also reduced by 30k to close at N13.15k per share.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) increased on Wednesday by 347.2 points to finish at 40,846.24 points, while the market capitalisation added N125.4 billion to settle at N14.754 trillion.
However. despite the market closing in the green territory on Wednesday, the volume of equities exchanged by investors marginally went down, while the value increased.
A total of 367.2 million shares were traded yesterday in 4,462 deals worth N5.3 billion compared with the 388.3 million units sold the previous session in 4,222 deals valued at N4.2 billion.
It was a very busy day for the banking stocks as they dominated trading yesterday with Zenith Bank emerging the most active after selling 100.6 million units for N2.7 billion.
Skye Bank sold 43 million shares valued at N27.9 million, while Access Bank executed 24 million shares worth N283.2 million.
GTBank traded 21 million equities for N908.7 million, while UBA transacted 19.8 million shares worth N215.6 million.
Adedapo Adesanya