Lagos – The Nigerian equity market on Wednesday recorded the second largest growth in the year, appreciating by 3.78 per cent due to the flexible foreign exchange policy pronouncement.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation rose by N354 billion to close at N9.706 trillion against N9.352 trillion achieved on Tuesday.
In the same vein, the All-Share Index appreciated by 1,029.11 points or 3.78 per cent to close at 28,260.61 compared with 27,231.50 posted on Tuesday.
NAN reports that with the growth , the market now trend at five-month, three-week high requiring only 1.33 per cent growth to erode the year deficit.
The growth was strongly boosted by capital appreciation recorded by Zenith Bank, Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria, UACN , Dangote Cement, GT Bank, Nestle and Seplat.
A breakdown of the price movement chart indicated that Nestle led the gainers’ table, growing by N20 to close at N750 per share.
Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N6.99 to close at N177, while Nigerian Breweries gained N6.38 to close at N133.99 per share.
Guinness appreciated by N4.75 to close at N99.85 and Lafarge Africa increased by N3.85 to close at N80.85 per share.
Conversely, Mobil Oil topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N8.75 to close at N166.25 per share.
Forte Oil trailed with a loss of N6.26 to close at N206.21 and GlaxoSmithKline shed N1.05 to close at N20.49 per share.
Union Dicon lost 59k to close at N11.51 and Cadbury depreciated by 38k to close at N16 per share.
Also, the volume of shares traded closed higher as investors staked N3.50 billion on 474.40 million shares transacted in 5,260 deals.
This was in contrast with 274.22 million shares worth N1.54 billion traded in 4,160 deals on Tuesday.
FBN Holdings emerged the most traded stock, trading 73.89 million shares worth N294.17 million.
Zenith Bank came second with 48.23 million shares valued at N790.43 million, while Skye Bank sold 45.89 million shares worth N55.85 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank accounted for 45.69 million shares valued at N960.72 million and Transcorp traded 39.56 million shares worth N50.41 million. (NAN)
