NSE market capitalisation up by N23bn

The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday closed on a positive trend, appreciating by N23 billion due to gains recorded by some blue chips.
The market capitalisation, which opened at N8.833 trillion, inched N23 billion or 0.26 per cent to close at N8.856 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index improved by 65.38 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 25,739.18, in contrast with the 25,673.80 recorded on Wednesday.
A breakdown of the price movement table indicated that Forte Oil recorded the highest price gain, leading the gainers’ pack with N8.95 to close at N96.37 per share.
Dangote Cement chalked up N1.84 to close at N160 and UACN gained 40k to close at N16.50 per share.
Zenith Bank rose by 25k to close at N14.50, while Flour Mill appreciated by 19k to close at N18.49 per share.
On the other hand, major petroleum stocks recorded price depreciation due to profit taking, with Total leading the losers’ table with a loss of N27.56, to close at N276.05 per share.
Mobil shed N16.16 to close at N307.15, while Unilever lost N2 to close at N46 per share.
International Breweries dipped 95k to close at N18.05 and Guinness lost 84k to close at N77.90 per share.
Diamond Bank was the most traded equity with a total of 80.27 million shares valued at N64.29 million.
International Breweries came second with 16.47 million shares worth N297.19 million and Transcrop sold 11.41 million shares valued at N9.88 million.
Investors staked N39.93 million on 11.28 million shares of FBN Holdings, while UBA sold 9.03 million shares valued at N39.19 million.
In all, the volume of shares traded dipped by 35.10 per cent as investors bought and sold 165.99 million shares worth N1.27 billion exchanged in 2,485 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 255.77 million shares valued at N2.08 billion transacted in 2,480 deals on Wednesday.