Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained the positive trend on Wednesday with the market indicators appreciating further by 0.65 per cent following recorded growth by highly capitalised companies.
The market capitalisation rose by N81 billion or 0.65 per cent to close at N12.603 trillion against N12.522 trillion achieved on Tuesday.
The All-Share Index, which opened at 39,130.37, appreciated further by 252.96 or 0.65 per cent to close at 39,383.33 points.
Guinness topped the gainers’ chart, appreciating by N4.99 to close at N240 per share.
Nigerian Breweries grew by N3.99 to close at N165, while Mobil Oil Lafarge chalked up N1.95 to close at N117 per share.
Dangote Cement increased by N1.74 to close at N211.74, while Lafarge Wapco grew by N1.50 to close at N107 per share.
Market analysts had attributed the growth to investors’ expectations of enhanced return on investment following improved third quarter result released by some blue chip companies.
Unilever led the losers’ chart, losing N2.61 to close at N52 per share.
PZ Cussons followed, dropping N1.69 to close at N34.76, while Ashaka Cement lost 39k to close at N19.80 per share.
Union Bank dropped 29k to close at N9.11, while National Salt dipped 17k to close at N13.32 per share.
A breakdown of the activity chart indicated that the banking equities remained investors’ delight as FCMB emerged the most traded stock, accounting for 110.87 million shares worth N354.79 million.
It was trailed by Skye Bank as investors’ staked N172.58 million on 39.80 million shares, while Unity Bank sold 34.89 million shares valued at N17.64 million.
Zenith Bank accounted for 29.97 million shares worth N656.12 million, while Transcorp traded 29.96 million shares valued N113.83 million.
In all, the volume of shares traded dropped by 31.74 per cent as 424.88 million shares worth N3.73 billion were traded in 4,803 deals compared with 622.47 million shares valued at N4.22 billion achieved in 4,697 deals on Tuesday.
