Nigerian Stock Exchange Index rallied by 0.74%

Transactions ended positively on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday with the All-Share Index growing by 0.74 per cent, following huge gains posted by some highly capitalised equities.
The index rose by 184.54 points or 0.74 per cent to close at 25,170.37 against 24,986.02 recorded on Wednesday.
Also, the market capitalisation increased by N63 billion to close at N8.710 trillion compared with N8.647 trillion achieved on Wednesday.
Nestle led the gainers’ table for the day, increasing by N34.55 to close at N725.55 per share.
Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., attributed Nestlé gain in spite of poor 2016 audited result to shareholding structure.
Kurfi stated that the stock was a defensive stock in the hands of few investors.
He said that the company’s stock performance was not based on laws of demand and supply like other stocks.
Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N7.60 to close at N159.75 and Guinness appreciated by N1.06  to close at N68 per share.
Stanbic IBTC added 55k to close at N18.29, while Flour Mills grew by 25k to close at N17.45 per share.
Conversely, Nigerian Breweries recorded the highest loss for the day, dropping by N6.86 to close at N130.36 per share.
Forte Oil trailed with a loss of N1.66 to close at N50.50 and Guaranty Trust Bank was down by N1.26 to close at N24.61 per share.
NAHCO shed  11k to close at N2.19 and United Capital declined by 4k to close at N2.41 per share.
Zenith  Bank maintained its leadership as the most traded , exchanging 45  million shares worth N659.01 million.
Fidelity Bank followed with account of 24.68 million shares valued at N30.37 million, while GTBank sold a total of 33.90 million shares worth N828.86 million.
United Capital exchanged 14.77 million shares worth N34.53 million and United Bank for  Africa traded 12.67 million shares valued at N63.49 million.
In all, a total of 215.91 million shares worth N2.19 billion exchanged in 3,279 deals against 218.72 million shares valued at N3.89 billion in 3,191 deals on Wednesday.