Chinwendu Obienyi
Price appreciation in the shares of GT Bank, Stanbic and UBA, on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday moved listed equities on the positive trajectory, raising the All Share Index (ASI) higher by 0.41 per cent.
Consequently, the market ended yesterday’s trading session at 26,401.66 points with Year-to-Date (YTD) loss moderating to -16.0 per cent, while investors’ wealth appreciated with market capitalisation increasing by N52 billion to close at N12.851 trillion.
However, activity level remained mixed as volume traded advanced 45.9 per cent to 368.17 million units, while value traded declined 26.1 per cent to N2.76 billion shares which changed hands in 3,473 deals.
The most active stocks at the session were Access bank who traded about 80.57 million shares worth N650.01 million, Law Union which sold 79.20 million shares worth N33.32 million and UBA transacted 55.43 million shares valued at N348.52 million.
Reacting to yesterday’s market trends, analysts said they do not expect the gains to be sustained in the days ahead as investor sentiment towards equities still remained sour.
At the sound of the closing gong, market breadth stay positive as 18 stocks appreciated in value while 13 others depreciated. Champion Breweries topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.99 Kobo per share. Honeywell Flour followed with 9.47 per cent to close at N1.04, while UBA rose by 8.62 per cent to close at N6.30, as Fidelity Bank garnered 6.86 per cent to close at N1.87 . Similarly NAHCO gained 6.38 per cent to close at N2.50.
On the flipside, Fidson Healtcare topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N3.60 per share. Unilever was next with 9.93 per cent to close at N24.05, as International Breweries trailed with 9.92 per cent to close at N11.35, and Cap hotel dropped 9.84 per cent to close at N2.75 .while MRS lost 9.73 per cent to close at N15.30.