Nigerian bourse closes bullish Wednesday as Index up 1.09%

Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday heave a sigh of relief as the All-Share Index rallied by 294.32 points or 1.09 per cent to close at 27,352.94 against 27,058.62 on Tuesday.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are; Nestle Nigeria, MTN Nigeria, Ecobank Trans International (ETI), Dangote Sugar Refinery and CI Leasing.

Also, the market capitalisation rose by 0.91 per cent due to the delisting of Skye Bank Plc and Fortis Microfinance from the NSE Daily Official List.

The Exchange said the delisting of the afore-listed companies was approved by the National Council on May 30, in line with its regulatory delisting process.

It said that the companies were delisted as a result of the revocation of their operating licenses by their primary regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria.

However, market breadth closed positive with 23 gainers and 16 losers.

Honeywell Flour Mills recorded the highest price gain of 9.68 per cent, to close at N1.02 per share.

ETI trailed with gain of 9.60 per cent to close at N6.85, while AXA Mansard Insurance appreciated by 9.41 per cent to close at N1.86 per share.

Union Diagnostic Clinical Services rose by 9.09 per cent to close at 24k, while Jaiz Bank appreciated by 8.82 per cent to close at 37k per share.

Conversely, Forte Oil led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, to close at N15.30 per share.

Okomu Oil followed with a loss of 9.18 per cent to close at N44.50, while Livestock Feeds dipped 8.89 to close at 41k per share.

Wapic Insurance lost 5.56 per cent to close at 34k, while Access Bank shed 4.62 per cent to close at N6.20 per share.

The total volume of shares traded grew by 73.6 per cent with an exchange of 363.97 million shares worth N4.52 billion traded in 3,451 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 209.62 million shares valued at N3.24 billion exchanged in 3,743 deals on Tuesday.

The banking equities drove the activity chart with United Bank for Africa (UBA) emerging at the most active with 64.73 million shares worth N381.92 million.

Access Bank followed with 58.12 million shares worth N372.27 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank sold 43.99 million shares valued at N1.17 billion.

FBN Holdings traded 36.14 million shares worth N177.94 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 34.56 million shares valued at N608.11 million.