NSE market capitalisation increases by N98bn

Activities sustained positive trend on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday with the market capitalisation appreciating by N98 billion lifted by Mobil Oil price growth.
The market capitalisation increased by N98 billion or 1.11 per cent to close at N8.911 trillion compared with N8.813 trillion posted on Wednesday.
Also, the All-Share Index grew by 283.49 points or 1.11 per cent to close at 25,755.18 in contrast with 25,471.69 achieved in the previous trading day.
Mobil Oil, for the second consecutive day, led the gainers’ table, gaining N12.72 to close at N360 per share.
Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd, attributed the rally to NIPCO complete acquisition of 60 per cent stake in Mobil and dividend declared for 2016 financial year.
Omordion said that investors should be very careful in taking long position in Mobil as many companies acquired in the oil and gas industry were under performed due to corporate governance issues.
Further analysis of the gainers’ table indicated that 7UP followed with a gain of N9.01 to close at N104.90 and Dangote Cement appreciated by N3.50 to close at N164.60 per share.
Lafarge Africa appreciated by N2.58 to close at N50, while Guaranty Trust Bank added 50k to close at N25 per share.
On the other hand, Conoil topped the losers’ chart with a loss of N1.75 to close at N33.25 per share.
Nigerian Breweries trailed 17k loss to close at N124.63 and Access Bank dipped 13k to close at N6.28 per share.
Redstar Express lost 11k to close at N4.30, while International Breweries also dropped 11k to close at N15.89 per share.
Similarly, the volume of shares traded by investors appreciated by 52.24 per cent with an exchange of 241.62 million shares worth N1.49 billion transacted in 3,339 deals.
This was against a turnover of 158.71 million shares valued at N1.13 billion traded in 3,048 deals on Wednesday.
FBN Holdings was investors delight, trading 63.67 million shares worth N197.33 million.
Fidelity Bank followed with 43.60 million shares valued at N34.79 million and United Capital sold 23.89 million shares worth N69.89 million.
Zenith International Bank accounted for 15.29 million shares valued at N221.77 million.