Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The volume of shares transacted on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) increased by 148.14 per cent on Wednesday.
This was largely driven by the sales of UAC Nigeria and FBN Holdings shares at the session as investors were interested in them.
Business Post reports that while UAC Nigeria traded 81.7 million stocks worth N471.5 million, FBN Holdings on its part transacted 66.4 million equities valued at N334.2 million.
Furthermore, Access Bank exchanged 59.2 million stocks for N378.8 million, Zenith Bank traded 30.8 million shares worth N521.2 million, while Presco transacted 26.2 million equities valued at N1.3 billion.
At the close of transactions, a total of 383.3 million shares worth N3.9 billion were traded in 3,860 deals in contrast to the previous day’s 154.5 million shares worth N1.5 billion transacted in 4,222 deals.
It was observed that the bargain hunting activities continued at the midweek session, resulting in the 0.16 per cent growth printed by trading stopped for the day at 2.30pm.
The All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 40.10 points to 24,882.04 points from 24,841.94 points, while the market capitalisation jumped by N21 billion to N12.980 trillion from N12.959 trillion.
The sustained growth yesterday was supported by the rise in most key sectors of the market with the exception of the insurance space, which declined by 0.01 per cent.
The energy counter grew by 0.11 per cent, the banking space followed with a growth of 0.07 per cent, while the consumer goods and industrial goods indices finished 0.01 per cent higher apiece.
The market breadth further closed positive on Wednesday with 18 price gainers and 12 price decliners.
Mobil Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of N1.60 to settle at N175 per share and was followed by Stanbic IBTC, which rose by N1.50 to finish at N31.50 per unit.
CAP gained N1.50 to end at N16.90 per share, Presco appreciated by 55 kobo to sell for N48 per share, while GTBank improved by 45 kobo to trade at N23.60 per unit.
On the flip side, Zenith Bank had a bad performance during the session, losing 45 kobo to settle at N16.50 per unit and was closely trailed by Eterna, which lost 18 kobo to sell for N1.82 per share.
May & Baker depreciated by 10 kobo to close at N2.90 per share, Flour Mills also declined by 10 kobo to finish at N19.40 per share, while Lafarge Africa slipped by 5 kobo to quote at N11.70 per share.
