NSE’s indices sustain rising profile, up by 2.2 per cent

TRANSACTIONS on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained rising profile yesterday, even as virtually all the highly capitalised stocks appreciated in price, causing market capitalisation to rise further by 2.2 per cent.

Yesterday, market capitalisation increased by N182 billion or 2.2 per cent to close at N8.482 trillion from N8,300 achieved on Wednesday. Also, the All-Share Index rose by 529.49 points or 2.2 per cent to close at 24,664.89 compared with 24,135.40 recorded on Wednesday.

Market analysts attributed the growth to low price of equities at the nation’s bourse and investors’ anticipation of positive results and dividends to be announced by some companies for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2015.

A breakdown of the price movement table showed that Forte Oil led the gainers’ table, increasing by N26 to close at N326 per share. Dangote Cement came second with N9.01 to close at N145, while Nigerian Breweries gained 99k to N98 per share. Zenith Bank appreciated by 30k to close at N12.60 and Access bank garnered 12k to close at N4.29 per share.

Conversely, Lafarge Africa topped the laggards’ chart, dropping by N2.05 to close at N78 per share. Glaxosmithkline dipped N1.10 to close at N20.91, while Conoil lost 91k to close at N18.33 per share.

Okomu Oil shed 40k to close at N29 and International Breweries depreciated by 31k to close at N20.14 per share.

Also, a breakdown of the activity chart showed that Wema Bank dominated in volume terms, exchanging 200.56 million shares worth N194.54 million traded in 13 deals. GT Bank followed with 63.24 million shares valued N1.04 billion exchanged in 412 deals, while Zenith Bank traded 30.72 million shares worth N385.02 million in 448 deals.

Investors’ staked N26.03 million on 27.70 million shares of FCMB Group in 148 deals and FBN Holdings accounted for 22.99 million shares worth N90.59 million achieved in 386 deals.

In all, a total of 414.35 million shares valued N3.29 billion were traded by investors in 3,380 deals, indicating an increase of 29.18 per cent, in contrast with a turnover of 320.75 million shares worth N1.82 billion transacted in 3,178 deals on Wednesday.