Equity transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), continued in an upward note yesterday, following price gains by major highly capitalised stocks, especially Nestle Plc, as market capitalisation increased further by N160billion.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, Nestle topped the gainers chart as the most priced stock, adding 79.97 kobo to close at N1,410.08 per share.

Okomu Oil followed, adding 5.00 to close at N75.00 per share. Seplat added 3.31 kobo to close at N501.31 per share. Nigerian Breweries increased by 3.10 kobo to close at N143.50 while Zenith Bank garnered 1.46 kobo to close at N27.50 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation, which opened at N13.608trillion rose by N160 billion or 1.18 per cent to close at N13.768trillion.

Also, the All-share index improved by 458.84 points or 1.17 per cent to close at 39,534.14 against 39,075.30 achieved on Wednesday.
However, Total led the losers’ chart, dropping 11.99 kobo to close at N228.01 per share.

GT Bank shed 1.04 to close at N42.01 per share while Dangote Cement dropped 1.00 kobo to close at N250 per share.

Lafarge Africa dipped by 80 kobo to close at N49.00 per share. Unilever lost 61 kobo to close at N43.79 per share.

Also, the volume of shares transacted closed higher with an exchange of 1.06 billion shares worth N10.16 billion traded in 8,464 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 703.68 million shares valued at N7.29billion exchanged in 6,125 deals on Wednesday.
The banking sector equities maintained leadership, as the most active with FCMB Group emerging investors delight, accounting for 154.33 million shares valued at N214.41million.

FBN Holdings followed with a turnover of 127.90 million shares worth N1.15billion, while United Bank for Africa sold 124.75 million shares valued at N1.37billion.

Zenith Bank accounted for 112.74 million shares worth N3.08billion, while Fidelity Bank transacted 94.15 million shares valued at N228.72million.