Chinwendu Obienyi
Equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday, rebounded after seven consecutive sessions of losses with the All Share Index (ASI) appreciating by 1.11 per cent to close at 42,171.80 points following bargain hunting.
Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns improved to -4.90 per cent and 10.27 per cent respectively while the market capitalization recovered N166 billion from N14.967 trillion to close at N15.133 trillion.
The Banking (+2.74 per cent) index led the pack, following renewed interests in tier 1 and tier 2 stocks, the Insurance (+1.29 per cent), Consumer Goods (+0.96 per cent), and Industrial Goods (+0.19 per cent) indices followed suit, as investors were bullish on WAPIC (+4.92 per cent), DANGFLOUR (+4.97 per cent), and BERGER (+4.76 per cent) stocks respectively. However, the Oil & Gas (-0.29 per cent) index closed negative, as the shares of Forte Oil (-1.75 per cent) were sold.
Market breadth was positive as 25 stocks advanced while 19 others declined. Skye Bank led the day’s gainers with 10.00 per cent to close at N1.10 per share, FCMB followed with 9.80 per cent to close at N2.80, Diamond Bank added by 7.78 per cent to close at N2.91, UBA garnered 6.28 per cent to close at N11.85 while Zenith Bank increased by 5 per cent to close at N31.50 per share.
On the flipside, First Aluminium topped the losers’ chart with 9.09 per cent to close at 0.40 kobo per share. LASACO followed with 5.88 per cent to close at 0.32 kobo, ABC Transport and Caverton both lost 5 per cent each to close at 0.38 kobo and N2.85 while Unity Bank decreased by 4.74 per cent to close at N1.81 per share.
Skye Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 113.195 million shares worth N121.953 million. FCMB followed with a turnover of 54.110 million shares valued at N146.097 million while UBA ranked third with a turnover of 41.925 million shares worth N487.572 million.
At the close of trading, total turnover of stocks traded stood at 520.743 million shares valued at N4.72 billion in 5,694 deals compared with 470.52 million shares valued at N3.68 billion in 6,309 deals in the previous trading session.