On Friday, trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed on the positive route, as the bulls regained their grip on the local bourse, following gains recorded by blue-chip firms.
The Nigerian bourse recorded 19 gainers against 9 losers to end trading on the positive route. Consequently, the All-Share Index appreciated by 1.63% to close at 22,921.59 index points as against 22,554.84 recorded yesterday, while market capitalization of equities grew by N191.14 billion from N11.754 trillion to N11.945 trillion, as market sentiment retained its positive territory.
Meanwhile, a turnover of 231.6 million shares exchanged in 4,521 deals was recorded in the day’s trading. The premium subsector was the most active (measured by turnover volume), with 80.5 million shares exchanged by investors. Volume in the subsector was largely driven by activities in the shares of First Bank Nigeria Holdings and UBA Plc.
Further analysis of the day’s trading showed that in percentage terms NASCON & PZ topped the day’s gainers’ table, with 10% each to close at N9.35 and N4.40 per share, while CADBURY led the losers with a drop of 10% to close at N6.30 per share.
READ MORE: Dangote Cement pushes NSE further into the red
With the exception of the NSE Oil & Gas which closed -1.22% lower due to -9.82% and -9.03% declines in ARDOVA & OANDO, all other sectors posted gains. Renewed buying interest in NASCON, PZ and NB prompted a 4.40% appreciation of the Consumer Goods sector to feature as the best performing index.
The Industrial and lenders indices followed with significant gains of +4.35% and +2.30% on price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+8.33%) and tier-one bank ACCESS (+6.35%), while the Insurance index trailed distantly at +0.4.
Top gainers
NASCON up 10.00% to close at N9.35; NB up 9.85% to close at N32.35; CONOIL up 9.78% to close at N17.4; BUACEMENT up 8.33% to close at N31.85; and NESTLE up 5.89% to close at N967.
Top losers
CADBURY down 10.00% to close at N6.3; ARDOVA down 9.82% to close at N10.1; OANDO down 9.03% to close at N2.62; WAPCO down 3.33% to close at N11.6; and FLOURMILL down 1.40% to close at N21.2.