Stock market sustains growth with 0.34% growth in ASI

Nigerian equities market closed in a positive territory on Wednesday as the All Share Index added 0.34 per cent, sustaining the growth recorded in previous session.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index added 0.34 per cent or 125.4 basis points to close at 37,138.97 points while the Market capitalisation inched N43.4 billion higher to settle at N12.854 trillion at the close of business on Wednesday.

A review of the sectoral indices showed the five major sectoral indices closed mixed. The consumer goods and Industrial Sector ended positive with a growth of 0.38 per cent and 0.46 per cent respectively, the banking and Insurance indices closed negative with a decline of 0.19 and 0.14 per cent while the Oil and Gas Index closed flat.

International breweries emerged the highest gainer for the day with a gain of 10.24 per cent to close at N45.20 per share. This was followed by Learn Africa that added 5.00 per cent to close at N1.05 per share and Caverton emerged the third highest gainer with a growth of 4.96 per cent to close at N1.48 per share.

On the other hand, UAC-Prop recorded the highest decline of 4.71 per cent to close at N2.83 per share. LawUnion was next with a decline of 4.41 per cent to close at 65 Kobo and Linkage Assurance dropped 3.95 per cent to close at 73 kobo per share.

The volume of shares transacted in 3,904 deals dropped to 193.5 million units from 305.2 million units transacted previously while the value traded also fell to N1.807 billion from N2.905 billion recorded previously.

Diamond Bank maintained its position as the most active stock for the second consecutive day with a trade of 36.3 million shares valued at N43.6 million. FBN Holdings followed with the sale of 35.2 million share worth N248.8 million while Fidelity Bank followed with the sale of 19.5 million shares worth N32.9 million.
FCMB traded 17.4 million shares valued at N20.9 million and AIICO exchanged 9.5 million shares worth N5.1 million.
 

Adesola Afolabi