Lagos-Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the third consecutive day maintained an upward trend with the market indicators appreciating by 1.03 per cent.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the All-Share Index on Wednesday rose by 305.91 basis points or 1.03 per cent to close at 29,889.91.
This is against 29,584.00 posted on Tuesday due to price growth recorded by some highly capitalised stocks.
Forte Oil topped the gainers’ chart for the day, increasing by N9.82 to close at N206.34 per share.
Total Nigeria came second with N4 to close at N144, while Nigerian Breweries also appreciated by N4 to close at N136 per share.
Stanbic IBTC chalked up N1.10 to close at N29 and Zenith Bank rose by 83 kobo to close at N17.53 per share.
NAN reports that the market capitalisation rose by N102 billion or 1.03 per cent to close at N9.974 trillion compared with N9.872 trillion achieved on Tuesday.
Analysts attributed the persistent growth in spite of uncertainties surrounding the general elections to low price of equities and improved earning reports declared by companies in 2014 financial year.
They added that the retention of the Monetary Policy Rate at 13 per cent by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) contributed to the rally.
Conversely, Nestle and Mobil Oil topped the laggards’ chart having lost N5 each to close at N800 and N140 per share respectively.
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Access Bank lost 30k to close at N5.60, while Dangote Cement dropped 28k to close at N152.60 per share.
NAHCO lost 19k to close at N4.61 per share.
In all, investors bought and sold 433.87 million shares worth N4.004 billion transacted in 3,915 deals, indicating an increase of 105 per cent.
This is in contrast with 211.43 million shares worth N2.85 billion traded in 3,808 deals on Tuesday.
An analysis of the activity chart showed that Mansard Insurance emerged the most traded equity with 86.28 million shares worth N263.14 million.
Zenith Bank sold 60.73 million shares valued N1.06 billion, while FBN Holdings accounted for 41.044 million worth N354.68 million.
Transcorp sold 40.79 million shares worth N115.89 million and Access Bank traded 39.354 million shares valued N223.78 million. (NAN)
