Equities Market Sustains uptrend as investors gain N40 billion

Equities trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange sustained uptrend for the third consecutive session on Thursday as market capitalization buoyed by N40 billion.

The market cap closed the day at N8.796 trillion compared to its starting figure of N8.756 trillion. Similarly, the NSE All Share Index (ASI) grew by 116.85 points or 0.46 percent to close at 25, 418.08 points.

Volume and Value traded by investors in 2468 deals on the floor of the Exchange also grew by 20 percent and 5 percent respectively to close at 280.95 million and N2.35 billion respectively, in comparison with 233.8 million units of shares worth N2.2 billion traded in 3,196 deals previously.

Topmost at the gainers table was Portland paints which rose 4.47 percent to close at N1.87 per share, UAC- Property was next with a growth of 4.40 percent to close at N1.90 per share, Sterling Bank increased by 4.29 percent to close at 73 kobo, UBA also added 3.85 percent to close at N5.40 per share, while Cadbury increased 3.29 percent to close at N7.84 per share

7up topped the day’s losers with a loss of 9.64 percent to close at N77.71 per share, while Ashaka Cement, Custodian and Allied Insurance and Jaiz Bank lost 5 percent each to close at N9.50, N3.23 and N1.33 per share respectively, as Fidson pharmaceuticals closed the day at 89 kobo, 4.30 percent lower from its previous trading value.

Top traded stocks for the day were Custodian with N80.3 million shares worth N259.6 million, Oando was next with 54.7 million shares valued at N281.8 million while UBA emerged the third most traded stock with 34.3 million units of shares worth N181.7 million.
Zenith and GTB also made it to the top five traded stocks for the day, having traded 20.9 million and 18.6 million units of shares each, worth N296.1 million and N482.7 million respectively.