Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday returned back on a positive territory with the market capitalization increasing by N33 billion.
The market capitalisation of sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest bourse, which opened at N13.133 trillion, increased by 0.25 per cent to close at N13.166 trillion. Also, the All-Share Index rose by 95.75 points to 38,198.60 compared with 38,102.85 achieved on Thursday.
A breakdown of the price movement chart indicated that Lafarge Africa lead the gainers’ table with a gain of N3 to close at N63 per share.
Unilever Nigeria shed N2.20 to close at N45.25, while Stanbic IBTC garnered N1 to close at N41 per share.
Nigerian Breweries also gained N1 to close at N191 and Guinness appreciated by 50k to close at N91.50 per share.
Ambrose Omordion, chief executive officer of InvestData Ltd., said that the market had succumbed to selling pressure on Thursday as investors sought to cash out on gains from the recent bullish trend of the market. This move had halted the month-to-date seven-day rally.
Omordion said that profit-taking was an integral part of any equity market especially in a recovering market.
On the other hand, Nestle topped the losers’ table declining by N8.01 to close at N120.80 per share.
Conoil trailed with a loss of N1.71 to close at N32.59 and 7UP Bottling lost N1.04 to close at N96.96 per share.
Guaranty Trust Bank shed 42k to close at N39.60, while Dangote Flour dipped 29k to close at N6.38 per share.
A total of 353.65 million shares valued at N6.30 billion were exchanged by investors in 4,079 deals.
This was against a turnover of 362.67 million shares worth N5.59 billion traded in 4,055 deals on Thursday.
Guaranty Trust Bank was the toast of investors having accounted for 61.83 million shares valued at N2.46 billion.
It was followed by UBA with 50.89 million worth N498.98 million, while Zenith international Bank sold 49.37 shares valued at N1.19 billion.
Access Bank accounted for 40.98 million shares worth N428.66 million and Fidelity Bank traded 20.38 million shares valued at N27.94 million.
