Business
Transactions Still Upbeat At Exchange
Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained the upbeat trend last Wednesday with market indices growing by 1.45 per cent.
The All-Share index appreciated by 377.70 points to close at 26,515.15 against 26,137.45 recorded last Tuesday.
The market capitalisation of the 217 first-tier equities also rose by N121 billion to close at N8.471 trillion from the opening index of N8.350 trillion
At the end of trading, 586.48 million shares worth N5.44 billion were exchanged in 7,995 deals against the 865.09 million shares worth N6.24 billion traded in 7,073 deals last Tuesday.
The banking sub-sector was still the most active, trading 492.88 million shares worth N4.71 trillion in 4,910 deals Stocks of five banks topped transactions in the sub-sector.
The five banks are Zenith Bank, Wema Bank, Diamond Bank, First Bank and Intercontinental Bank.
Investors in Zenith Bank traded 168.32 million shares worth N2.68 billion in 533 deals, while those in Wema Bank exchanged 40.53 million shares valued at N50.53 million in 135 deals.
Diamond Bank traded 37.77 million shares worth N324.27 million in 198 deals while First Bank moved 31.74 million shares valued at N484.09 million in 984 deals.
Intercontinental Bank traded 29.98 million shares worth N78.52 million in 249 deals.
It was reported that analysts have attributed the recent growth in banking equities to the take-off of AMCON which has bought some non-performing loans of banks.
The Insurance sub-sector followed with 27.82 million shares valued at N23.81 million traded in 418 deals.
Standard Alliance Insurance led the sub-sector in volume terms with 10.04 million shares worth N5.02 million traded in six deals.
The Conglomerates came third with 11.96 million shares worth N59.98 million exchanged in 281 deals.
Volume in the sub-sector was driven by transactions in the shares of Transcorp where 10.27 million shares valued at N 5.13 million were traded in 69 deals.
Nigerian Breweries grew by N3.94 to close at N82.94 while Ashaka Cement gained N1.37 to close at N28.92 per share.
PRESCO led the price losers, dropping 35k to close at N6.65 per share.
Okomu oil lost 20k to close at N14.60 while FCMB lost 19k to close at N8.00 per share