Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday in Lagos closed upbeat after the Workers’ Day celebration with the market capitalisation appreciating by further N29 billion.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation rose by N29 billion or 0.23per cent to close at N12.700 trillion against N12.671 trillion achieved on Wednesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index, which opened at 38,485.48 appreciated by 93.3 basis points to close at 38,578.78.
NAN reports that Nestle topped the gainers’ chart, appreciating by N32 to close at N1,078 per share.
Seplat grew by N3.69 to close at N630, while Ashaka chalked up N1.68 to close at N18.18 per share.
Nigerian Breweries increased by N1 to close at N151, while GT Bank grew by 92k to close at N27.15 per share.
Market analysts attribute the renewed interest in equities to improved first quarter results released by some blue chip companies.
However, Total led the losers’ chart, losing N8.06 to close at N153.14 per share.
Guinness came second on the laggards’ chart with a loss of N5.50 to close at N170.50, while Cadbury lost N3.73 to close at N71.32 per share.
Also, Mobil dropped N3.22 to close at N115, while Julius Berger lost N1.48 to close at N69.42 per share.
A breakdown of the activity chart indicated that MTI emerged the most traded stock, accounting for 167.61 million shares worth N83.81 million.
It was trailed by Zenith Bank as investors’ staked N940.31 million on 40.95 million shares, while FBN Holdings sold 33.06 million shares valued N465.25 million.
NSI Technology accounted for 31 million shares worth N15.50 million and Diamond Bank traded 16.22 million shares valued at N100.09 million.
Over all, the volume of shares traded increased to 430.09 million shares worth N3.96 billion transacted in 5,383 deals.
This is in contrast with 300.26 million shares valued N5.38 billion achieved in 4,800 deals on Wednesday.
