Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in an upbeat yesterday, occasioned by price gains in most blue chip stocks as market capitalisation appreciated marginally by N3 billion.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Index (ASI) rose by 4.25 points or 0.02 per cent to 27,607.02 points. Investors gained N3 billion in value as market capitalisation went up to N13.431 trillion.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are: MTN Nigeria, Forte Oil, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), Dangote Cement and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).On the market outlook, analysts at Afrinvest Limited predicted the return of the bears owing to the absence of economic stimulus to stimulate investors’ confidence in equities.
“We expect a bearish performance to resurface in the market due to the absence of economic stimulus to stoke investor confidence in equities.”
Further breakdown of yesterday’s transactions showed that market breadth closed the same with13 stocks advanced against 13 decliners. Continental Reinsurance, Cornerstone Insurance and John Holts recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, each to close at N1.43, 22 kobo and 55 kobo, respectively, per share.
Unity Bank followed with a gain 8.33 per cent to close at 65 kobo, while Forte Oil appreciated by 5.48 per cent to close at N15.40, per share.Wapic Insurance went up by 5.41 per cent to close at 39 kobo, while Oando appreciated by four per cent to close at N3.90 per share. On the other hand, Honeywell Flour Mills led the losers’ chart by 7.41 per cent each, to close at N1.00, per share. PZ Cussons Nigeria followed with a decline of 5.60 per cent to close at N5.90 per share while Access Bank shed 5.15 per cent to close at N6.45, per share.
Fidelity Bank lost 4.73 per cent to close at N1.61, while Chams shed 3.45 per cent to close at 28 kobo, per share.The total volume traded fell by 29 per cent to 130.37 million shares, worth N3.01 billion, and traded in 2,866 deals. Transactions in the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) topped the activity chart with 39.09 million shares valued at N41.74 million.
MTN Nigeria followed with 15.27 million shares worth N2.14 billion, while Lafarge Africa traded 10.44 million shares valued at N147.73 million. Zenith Bank traded 7.57 million shares valued at N140.06 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 6.73 million shares worth N32.77 million.
