Renewed interest: NSE crucial market indicators up by 0.25%

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) crucial market indices inched 0.25 per cent on Wednesday due to renewed buying interest occasioned by the low price of equities.
Specifically, the market capitalisation rose by N32 billion or 0.25 per cent to close higher at N12.807 trillion against N12.775 trillion on Tuesday.
Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 66.38 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 26,310.77 compared with 26,244.39 on Tuesday.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are Dangote Cement, UACN, Access Bank, University Press and MTN Nigeria.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said “we maintain our bearish outlook for the rest of the week in the absence of any major market drivers.
“However, we see opportunities for bargain hunting in stocks with sound fundamentals,’’ they said.
In spite of the growth in market indices, market breadth closed negatively, with eight gainers against 11 losers.
University Press led the gainers’ table in percentage terms, growing by 10 per cent to close at N1.21 per share.
Law Union & Rock Insurance trailed with a gain of 8.89 per cent to close at 49k while UACN rose by 7.50 per cent to close at N6.45 per share.
Dangote Cement inched 2.05 per cent to close at N149 while Access Bank garnered 2.04 per cent to close at N7.50 per share.
Conversely, Afromedia led the laggards’ table in percentage terms, dropping by 9.76 per cent to close at 37k.
Flour Mills followed with a loss of 9.68 per cent to close at N14 while Wema Bank shed 6.67 per cent to close at 56k per share.
Lafarge Africa dipped by 6.62 per cent to close at N13.40 while Unity Bank was down by 6.35 per cent to close at 59k per share.
However, the total volume traded declined by 41.45 per cent with an exchange of 156.85 million shares valued at N1.81 billion transacted in 3,088 deals.
This was against a turnover of 267.89 million shares worth N2.77 billion achieved in 2,967 deals on Tuesday.
Multiverse topped the activity chart with 25 million shares valued at N5 billion.
Sterling Bank traded 19.45 million shares worth N38.36 billion and Access Bank transacted 18.71 million shares valued at N139.79 million.
Zenith Bank traded 14.50 million shares worth N245.83 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 11.03 million shares valued at N63.44 million.