Trading activities on the Nigerian stock market yesterday continued on a positive note after last Friday’s equity rise in prices of stocks, even as major blue chip stocks recorded price appreciation, causing the All-share index to rise by 1.00 per cent.
Market analysts attributed the rise to investors taking position to leverage on low prices of stocks after days of bearish run occasioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s increase in monetary policy rate last week.
Specifically, at the closed of transactions yesterday, Dangote Cement and Oando led the gainers’ chart with 4.00 and 0.70 per cent to close at N100.00 and N27.70 per share. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 0.30 per cent to close at N12.90 per share, NCR added 0.26 per cent to close at N5.48 per share and International Breweries appreciated by 0.24 per cent to close at N6.00 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger topped the losers’ chart with 2.12 per cent to close at N40.45 per share, PZ Cusson shed 1.04 per cent to close at N29.51 per share, Ashakacement lost 0.50 per cent to close at N13.50 per share, Dangote Sugar depreciated by 0.32 per cent to close at N6.18 per share while Flour Mills dropped by 0.25 per cent to close at N58.25 per share.
Consequently, the All-share index which measures the performance of quoted companies rose by 210.5 basis points or 1.00 per cent from 19,869.85 recorded on Friday to 20,071.36 while market capitalisation increased by N64 billion or 1.00 per cent from N6.297 trillion to N6.361 trillion.
A check on the price movement chart showed that 25 companies recorded price appreciation while 14 other had their price deepened in the day’s transaction.
On the activity chart, the insurance subsector was the most active stock in volume terms with 159.2 million shares worth N123.3 billion in 104 deals followed by the Banking subsector featuring with 96.5 million units worth N813.4 million in 2,008.
The Conglomerate subsector ranked third with 11.00 million units worth N63.5 million in 279 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Niger Insurance boosted activities in the insurance subsector with 86.8 million shares worth N43.4 million in 28 deals.
The banking subsector was buoyed by activities in the shares of Zenith Bank which traded 28.1 million shares worth N331.4 million while GTBank followed with 21million units worth N268.3 million in 509 deals.
The Conglomerate subsector was energised by activities in the shares of TRANSCORP which traded 9.0million shares worth N6.1million in 79deals.
On the whole, investors traded 293.5 million shares worth N1.5 million in 3,641deals.