Ngozi Amuche
Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock exchange has shown that the equities market made 0.83 percent gain on Wednesday, after going down by 0.17 per cent the previous day.
The growth achieved increased the All-Share Index (ASI) by 254.08 points to 30,733.47 points from 30,479.39 points.
It equally pushed the market capitalisation up by N133 billion to N16.064 trillion from N15.931 trillion.
Analysts says bargain-hunting in some stocks, especially in the industrial goods, energy and insurance sectors, contributed to the gains recorded at the market yesterday.
The industrial goods sector grew by 2.85 per cent, the energy index rose by 0.62 per cent, the insurance counter appreciated by 0.33 per cent, while the banking and consumer goods sectors lost 0.47 per cent and 0.13 per cent, respectively.
A total of 24 stocks appreciated in price on Wednesday, higher than the 18 equities that depreciated in price during the same session, making the market breadth, which indicates investor sentiment, to close positive.
During trading Wednesday, Dangote Cement gained N9 to close as the highest price gainer at N169 per share and was followed by CAP, which appreciated by N1.95 to settle at N22.30 per unit.
Vitafoam improved by 35 kobo to sell at N6.75 per share, Dangote Sugar rose by 25 kobo to finish at N15.40 per share, while Oando gained 18 kobo to trade at N2.75 per share.
GTBank led the price losers’ chart after shedding 50 kobo to close at N32 per unit and was trailed by Stanbic IBTC, which also lost 50 kobo to finish at N46 per share.
Guinness Nigeria, Custodian Investment and Flour Mills depreciated by 45 kobo each to trade at N16.55 per unit, N5.60 per share and N28.40 per unit, respectively.
On the activity chart, only the trading value closed in the green region as it increased by 2.32 per cent to N3.9 billion from N3.8 billion.
