Investors in equities on NSE gain N18bn

Equity transaction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday ended bullish as investors renewed their interest in the market.

The market gained N18 billion to close at N9.472 trillion while All Share Index gained 51.47 basis points or 0.19 per cent to close at 27,574.09 basis points.

The upturn was mostly imparted by value appreciation recorded in the following large capitalised stocks, Conoil, PZ Industry, Seven Up, Nigeria Breweries, Seplat, Nestle and Zenith Bank.

The market recorded 23 gainers as against 11 losers. Conoil recorded the highest price gain of 4.96 per cent, to close at N21.59 per share. Vitafoam gained 4.91 per cent to close at N2.99, while Transnational express appreciated by 4.90 per cent to close at N1.07 per share.

African Prudential Insurance went up by 4.87 per cent to close at N2.37, while Aiico Insurance appreciated by 4.84 per cent to close at 65 kobo per share.

On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 9.73 per cent, to close at N39.44 per share. Caverton shed 9.02 per cent to close at N1.21, while Wema Bank declined by 4.17 per cent to close at 69 kobo per share.

UBA depreciated by 4.14 per cent to close at N4.40 and Flourmill declined by 3.59 per cent  to close at N19.04 per share.

However, the volume traded went down by 17.91 per cent to 242.74 million shares, valued at N1.74 billion, and traded in 3,067 deals.

Transactions in the shares of UBA topped the activity chart with 66.99 million shares valued at N302.43 million. Skye Bank followed with 33.26 million shares worth N21.93 million, while FBN Holdings traded 24 million shares valued at N74.12 million.

Diamond Bank traded 22.73 million shares worth N27.41 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 13.65 million shared valued N12.39 million.