Chinwendu Obienyi
Following gains recorded in the shares of Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings and UBA, equities market marginally advanced by 0.01 per cent in yesterday’s trading session and settled at 30,088.65 points after the Easter break.
Consequently, market capitalisation advanced N2 billion to close at N11.303 trillion, while YTD loss stood at -4.3 per cent.
At the close of trading, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 39.3 and 109.7 per cent to 316.1 million units and N3.64 billion respectively in 3,888 deals.
Reacting, analysts at Afrinvest said: “In the near term, we anticipate that corporate earnings will have a significant impact in the domestic bourse as investors will continue to take position in attractive stocks ahead of earnings expectations”.
Investor sentiments remained positive as 20 stocks advanced while 17 others declined. Japaul Oil topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo per share, Dangote Flour followed with 9.81 per cent to close at N11.75, First Aluminium gained 9.76 per cent to close at 0.45 kobo, Vitafoam increased by 9.71 per cent to close at N3.84 while Trans Express rose by 9.46 per cent to close at 0.81 kobo.
On the other hand, Guinness topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N54 per share. Forte oil was next with 9.83 per cent to close at N24.30, Unilever fell by 8.82 per cent to close at N31, Custodian dropped 5.51 per cent to close at N6 while NPF Microfinance Bank lost 5.44 per cent to close at N1.39.
Japaul Oil topped the volume chart with the sale of 69.04 million shares valued at N14.12 million. Unilever transacted 41.20 million shares worth N1.27 billion while Sterling Bank sold 38.85 million shares worth N104.91 million.
