Nigeria bourse sustained growth, capitalisation up by N78bn

Activities on the nation’s bourse sustained positive trend on Wednesday with the market capitalisation improving by N78 billion in five hours of trading.
Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N12.084 trillion, inched N78 billion to close at N12.162 trillion compared with N12.084 trillion achieved on Tuesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 207.87 points or 0.64 per cent to close at 32,614.05 against 32,406.18 posted on Tuesday.
Nigerian Breweries led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N7.50 to close at N82.50 per share.
Mobil Oil followed with a gain of N1.80 to close at N170, while Dangote Flour added 50k to close at N9.95 per share.
UACN also garnered 50k to close at N9, while Zenith Bank grew by 45k to close at N25.80 per share.
On the other hand, Nestlé recorded the highest loss to lead the laggards’ table, dropping by N20 to close at N1, 580 per share.
Unilever followed with a loss of 60k to close at N43, while Custodian and Investment trailed with a loss of 45k to close at N6.10 per share.
GlaxosmithKline shed 45k to close at N11.55, while Flour Mills was down by 25k to close at N20.75 per share.
The banking stocks as usual dominated activity chart with Sterling Bank emerging the most active, exchanging 105.75 million shares worth N253.75 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank followed with an account of 37.43 million shares valued at N1.42 billion, while United Bank for Africa traded 33.43 million shares worth N266.17 million.
Access Bank sold 29.39 million shares valued at N187.79 million, while Transcorp sold 25.478 million shares worth N37.56 million.
In all, a total of 443.78 million shares valued at N5.64 billion was traded by investors in 4,697 deals, an increase of 22.65 per cent.
This was in contrast with 361.82 million shares worth N4.16 billion transacted in 4,623 deals on Tuesday.