Dividends sentiment: Blue chips sustain price growth on NSE

Major highly capitalised equities recorded price growth on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, with the market indices maintaining upward trend for the third consecutive trading day.
Nigerian Breweries led the gainers’ table for the day,  gaining N3.14 to close at N133.84 per share.
Forte Oil followed with gain of N1.12  to close at N48.93, while Guaranty Trust Bank appreciated by 45k to close at N25.80 per share.
Zenith International Bank improved by N0.40 kobo to close at N14.55 per share.
 
Consequently, the All-Share Index posted a growth of 116.85 points or 0.46 per cent to 25,418.08 compared to 25,301.23 recorded on Wednesday.
 
Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N8.756 trillion increased by N40 billion or 0.46 per cent to close at N8.796 trillion.
 
Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd. , attributed the growth to investors sentiment and repositioning in dividend stocks with good fundamentals.
Omordion stated that slowdown in inflation for the month of February contributed to the market trend.
 
According to him, the momentum will be sustained if the March inflation figure followed the same trend.
 
On the other hand, 7UP Bottling Company recorded the highest loss to lead the laggards’ table, shedding N8.29 to close at N77.71 per share.
 
Total trailed with a loss of N5.45 to close at N274.55, while Ashaka Cement dipped 50k to close at N9.50 per share.
 
Dangote Cement also declined by 50k to close at N160 and UACN was down by 25k to close at N14 per share.
 
Custodian Insurance recorded the highest volume of activities, trading 80.34 million shares worth N259.55 million.
 
Oando followed with an exchange of 54.73 million shares valued at N281.79 million, while UBA accounted for 34.29 million shares worth N181.66 million.
 
Zenith Bank sold 20.88 million shares valued at N296.12 million and Guaranty Trust Bank traded 18.63 million shares worth N482.69 million.
The volume of shares transacted by investors appreciated by 62.95 per cent with a total of 380.95 million shares valued at N2.35 billion traded in 2,468 deals.
 
This was against the 233.78 million shares worth N2.16 billion exchanged in 3,196 deals on Wednesday.