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Activities on the Lagos floor of the Nigerian Stock Market reved up on Monday with volume of business hiting 1.258 billion mark, the highest the wobbling market has experienced in the past one month. As a result, market indicators surged up by about 0.20 per cent closing All-share index at 59,243.78 points up from 59,124.87 points. Market capitalization also appreciated by similar percentage rising up to N11.453 trillion from N11.430 trillion with which the market closed last week.
Activity chart across board showed impressive outing as most of the sectors crossed one million volume units of transactions.

Surprisingly heavy trading on the shares of Cement Company of Northern Nigeria alone put the Building Materials sub-sector ahead of the banking sub-sector as over 630 million shares were traded in 49 deals worth N9.8 billion. This accounted for over 95 per cent of the total of 633,345,523 units of shares traded in the sub-sector in 326 deals valued at N9.914 billion while the Banking sub-sector traded a little above 358 million units in 8,447 deals worth N10.037 billion.

In the same vein, the insurance sub-sector was up-beat as Universal Insurance Company which traded a little less than 81 million units pushed up activities in the sub-sector to a little over 170 million in 3,071 deals worth N602.958 million. The Conglomerates sub-sector was also impressive with Transcorp accounting for over 19 million units out of a total 25.213 million shares traded in 654 deals worth N310.378 million.

At the close of business, total quantity of shares traded rose to 1,258,332.104 in 17,036 deals worth N22,803,237,885.50. However stock prices failed to appreciate significantly. Out of 96 equities traded on the floor, only 38 experienced price rally led by Chevron, Oando and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) with each gaining N396, 990 kobo and 600 kobo closing at N293.26, N244.90 and N250.00 respectively.

Trailing behind the blue-chip equities on the top 10 gainers’ table, WAPCO, Eterna Oil, and First Bank went up with 168 kobo, 165 kobo and 150 kobo each to close at N53.00, N34.65, and N44.00 respectively.

Other price gainers were Arbico, Dangote Flour, Union Bank and Presco with each picking up 147 kobo, 146 kobo, 127 kobo and 93 kobo to close the day at N30.91, N30.78, N37.52 and N19.67 in that order.

On the losers chart, Mobil, Nestle, Costain and Cadbury led 54 others down with N12.30, 600 kobo, 248 kobo, and 194 kobo each, closing the day at N239.91, N212.00, N47.16 and N36.96 in that order.

Dangote Sugar, Nigerian Breweries and Ashaka Cement which tied at loss with Guaranty Trust Bank also closed the day on red with each losing 170 kobo, 150 kobo and 147 kobo in that order to close at N32.30, N49.50, and N37.51 respectively. Guaranty Trust Bank dropped 147 kobo, followed by PZ and Flour Mill which lost 123 kobo and 106 kobo respectively to close the day on the down side at N31.51, N24.27, and N87.00 respectively.