By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Nigerian securities market started its last trading week of the year on a bullish note, up 0.8 per cent to close at 39,110.17 points.
The performance was buoyed by strong demand for BUA Cement, Access Bank and Zenith Bank, which drove the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return to 45.7 per cent while market capitalisation rose by N168 billion to close yesterday’s transactions at N20.446 trillion.
However, activity level on the bourse was mixed as the volume of stocks traded rose by 85.4 per cent to 722.6 million units while value of stocks traded dipped by 45 per cent to N4.38 billion, exchanged in 5,042 deals.
AIICO was the most active stock following the sale of 273.12 million shares valued at N326.09 million. Oando traded 81.44 million shares worth N323.32 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 41.08 million shares valued at N294.21 million.
Investor’ sentiment was weak with 20 stocks depreciating in value while 19 others appreciated. NCR topped the loser’s chart with 9.68 per cent to close at N1.96 per share, FTN Cocoa followed with 8.89 per cent to close at 0.81 kobo, TransExpress declined by 8.86 per cent to close at 0.72 kobo, Chams fell by 8.70 per cent to close at 0.21 kobo while Mansard dropped 4.76 per cent to close at N1.
On the other hand, Jaiz Bank topped the gainer’s chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.86 kobo, NEM was next with 9.56 per cent to close at N1.49, Lasaco rose by 8.82 per cent to close at 0.37 kobo, NPF Microfinance Bank garnered 8.39 per cent to close at N1.68 while Japaul gained 8.33 per cent to close at 0.52 kobo.