Equities Market sustains gains with 1.88 per cent

Nigeria’s Equities market closed the second trading day this week on a positive note, improving gains by N211.8 billion, as Market Capitalisation closed at N11.505 trillion.

The NSE’s All-Share Index (ASI) gained 1.88 per cent or 612.54 points to close at 33,269.84 points compared to 1.64 per cent appreciation recorded previously, improving year to date returns to 23.4 percent on demand for banking, industrial goods, consumer goods, and oil & gas stocks.

All sector indices thus ended the day on a positive note, as investors in 4,594 deals bought and sold a total of 439.2 million shares worth N4.8 billion, representing an increase of 14 per cent and 45 per cent respectively in comparison with previous day’s trade.

PZ led the day’s gainers by 9.90 per cent to close at N22.97 per share, while Diamond Bank followed with a gain of 8.33 per cent to close at N1.30 per share, while UBA 5.22 per cent to close at N9.47 per share. Cadbury appreciated five per cent to close at N13.65 per share and Stanbic gained 4.98 per cent to close at N32.4 per share.

On the flip side, May & Baker topped the day’s losers with a decline of 4.88 per cent each, to close at N4.29 per share, Livestock feeds came next, with a decline of 4.76 per cent to close at N1 per share. Skye Bank followed, with a loss of 4.69 percent to close at 61 kobo, Transnationwide Express dipped 4.60 per cent to close at 83 kobo per share and Jaiz Bank fell 4.29 per cent to close at 67 kobo per share.

UBA maintained its top spot on the day’s activity chart with an exchange of 176 million shares worth N1.6 billion.
Access Bank was next with the sale of 54.8 million shares valued at N512.6 million, while Transcorp traded 43.8 million shares worth N63.8 million. Diamond Bank exchanged 26.3 million shares valued at N33.7 million, and Zenith Bank emerged the fifth most traded stock with 20.0 million shares worth N422.0 million.