16 gainers spur equities’ market 0.19% rebound

After trading in the negative zone for the past three sessions, activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rebounded on Wednesday with the All- Share Index recording a gain of 0.19 per cent.

The day’s growth was as a result of increases recorded across all sector of the NSE except the Industrial and Oil&Gas indices which bowed to profit taking following preceding profitable sessions. They fell per cent 0.39 and 0.88 per cent respectively.

The Consumer goods stocks were investors delight as bargain hunting in Unilever and Nestle pushed the index higher by 1.14 per cent, while the NSE banking was buoyed by increases recorded in Access, GTB, FBN Holdings to post a modest gain of 0.22 per cent

The NSE All- Share Index (ASI) consequently grew 66.82 points to close at 35,464.34 point, while the market capitalisation increased by N23 billion to close at N12.224 trillion.

NEM Insurance and Unilever improved by 4.76 per cent each to close at N1.10 and N44, leading the day’s 16 gainers.

They were followed by CI Leasing which grew by 4.55 per cent to close at N1.15, while AIICO insurance added 3.64 per cent to close at 57 kobo. Nestle made it to the top five gainers list with a growth of 3.46 per cent to close at N1,190 per share.

On the other hand Presco led the day’s 21 decliners with a depreciation of 4.99 per cent, Oando fell 4.89 per cent to close at N6.42 per share, Eterna dropped 4.74 per cent to close at N3.42, while May & Baker and Jaiz Bank fell 4.29 per cent each to close at N2.90 per share and 67kobo per share

The total volume of shares traded by investors in 3,015 deals declined by 68 per cent to 119.9 million units as against 373.5 million shares sold the previous session in 4,193 deals.

The value of shares also declined by 70 per cent to N1.745bn compared to the total value of N5.766bn traded on Tuesday

Access Bank emerged the most traded stock with 13.9 million units sold at N134.7m, Zenith Bank was next with the sale of 12.2 million units of shares valued at N281.2m. Fidelity Bank was third with the sale of 11.4 million shares worth N14.8m, FBN Holdings sold 10.03 million shares at N59.1m, while Oando emerged the fifth most traded stock with the sale of 5.9 million shares worth N38m.