By Chinwendu Obienyi
The volume of transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 755 per cent as buying interest in highly capitalised stocks sustained bullish sentiments at the close of business on Thursday.
Increased appetite in the shares of Seplat, Nigerian Breweries and GT Bank drove the All Share Index (ASI) up by 0.31 per cent to close at 40,490.85 points.
In the same vein, market capitalisation increased by N66 billion to settle at N21.224 trillion, while year-to-date (YTD) return improved to 0.8 per cent.
Activity level surged as the volume and value of stocks traded advanced by 755 per cent and 243.8 per cent to 2.13 billion units and N7.5 billion, exchanged in 4,558 deals.
Reacting to the performance of the market, Afrinvest, in a note, said, “we anticipate the equities market would close on a positive note for the week”.
At the close of trading, 27 stocks appreciated in value while 12 others depreciated. FTN Cocoa topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.66 kobo per share, Livestock feeds followed with 10 per cent to close at N1.65, Seplat rose by 10 per cent to close at N451, Ardova garnered 9.96 per cent to close at N14.90 while Japaul gained 9.88 per cent to close at 0.89 kobo.
On the other hand, Sovereign Insurance topped the losers’ chart with 9.09 per cent to close at 0.20 kobo per share. Courtville was next with 8.70 per cent to close at 0.21 kobo, Lasaco dropped 7.89 per cent to close at 0.35 kobo, Unilever lost 6.47 per cent to close at N13 while Sterling Bank fell by 4.39 per cent to close at N1.96.