NSE sustains growth on year end activities

Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained upbeat on Thursday with the All-Share Index improving by 0.35 per cent due to gains recorded by major petroleum equities.
The index increased by 94.68 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 26,782.93 against 26,688.25 posted on Wednesday.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation, which opened at N9.182 trillion rose by N33 billion to close at N9.215 trillion.
Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd, attributed the rally to end of year activities embarked by market players and quoted companies.
Omordion said that year end activities of market players to balance their books pushed up equity prices.
He said that investors should only position in dividend paying stocks with earnings capacity for dividend payment.
Total led the gainers’ table, growing by N11.88 to close at N299 per share.
Seplat followed with a gain of N9.49 to close at N379 and Guaranty Trust Bank gained N1.35 to close at N24.74 per share.
Okomu Oil added 65k to close at N40.17, while Ashaka Cement grew by 57k to close at N12.02 per share.
On the other hand, Forte Oil topped the losers’ chart with a loss of N10.07 to close at N93.54 per share.
Mobil trailed with a loss of N2 to close at N290 and Stanbic IBTC shed 66k to close at N15 per share.
Access Bank was down by 19k to close at N5.78, while Champion Breweries declined by 12k to close at N2.38 per share.
However, the volume of shares traded closed lower, dropping by 10.89 per cent as investors staked N877.63 million on 117.40 million shares transacted in 2,392 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 131.74 million shares valued at N1.25 billion achieved in 2,257 deals on Wednesday.
FCMB Group was the toast of investors, having sold 12.77 million shares worth N13.89 million.
Zenith Bank accounted for 11.76 million shares valued at N174.15 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 11.61 million shares worth N40.31 million.
GT Bank sold 10.10 million shares valued at N249.22 million and Diamond Bank traded 9.16 million shares worth N8.16 million.