NSE’s indices sustain rising profile, up by N38 billion

Improved corporate performance has continued to push transactions on the equity sector of the Nigerian stock Exchange, as more blue chip stocks record price appreciation, causing market capitalisation to increase further by N38 billion.

Yesterday, the market capitalisation improved by N38 billion or 0.39 per cent to close at N9.629 trillion against N9.591 trillion posted on Monday.Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 109.32 points or 0.39 per cent to close higher at 28,034.32 compared with 27,925.00 achieved on Monday.

Analysts attributed the sustained price appreciation to impressive third quarter results released by some companies.On the price movement chart, Nestle topped the gainers’ cahrt with N25 to close at N825 per share.

Seplat followed with N17.50 to close at N367.51 and Presco gained N1.30 to close at N4.50 per share. Zenith Bank trailed with 49 kobo to close at N15.04, while Dangote Sugar rose by 15 kobo to close at N6.50 per share.

On the other hand, Guinness led the laggards’ chart with a loss of N3.83 to close at N76 per share. Lafarge Africa trailed with 91 kobo to close at N48.09 and Flour Mills depreciated by 30 kobo to close at N20.70 per share.

UACN shed 25 kobo to close at N20.80, while FBN Holding lost 10 kobo to close at N3 per share.Similarly, the volume of shares traded closed higher as investors staked N2.72 billion on 234.19 million shares transacted in 3,335 deals, against the 171.46 million shares worth N1.73 billion traded in 3,045 deals on Monday.

United Bank for Africa emerged the most traded, accounting for 83.06 million shares valued at N346.24 million.Zenith Bank traded 18.93 million shares worth N282.46 million and GT Bank sold 12.72 million shares valued at N303.44 million.

FCMB Group exchanged 10.74 million shares worth N12.44 million, while Hallmark Insurance exchanged 10 million shares worth N5 million.