By Janet Olushola
The Nigerian stocks market today opened trading on a positive note as overall market capitalisation crossed N30 trillion.
Consequently, the All Share Index (ASI) rose by 379.21 absolute points, representing a gain of 0.69 per cent to close at 55,328.42 points. Accordingly, investors gained N206 billion in value as market capitalisation went up to N30.140 trillion.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Geregu Power, Conoil, BUA Foods, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and MRS Oil Nigeria.
This week, United Capital Plc said, “we expect the equities market to remain bullish despite post-election uncertainties. We foresee opportunities for the buy-side to increase holdings (in the near-term) on fundamentally sound stocks with improved valuation and dividend performance. Nonetheless, we still expect profit-booking activity for overbought stocks.”
Market breadth closed positive as 28 stocks posted gains while nine stocks posted declines. C & I Leasing, Oando and Stanbic IBTC Holdings recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at N3.63, N4.40 and N37.95, per share.
Conoil went up by 9.98 per cent to close at N46.85, while MRS Oil Nigeria appreciated by 9.66 per cent to close at N33.50, per share.
On the other hand, FTN Cocoa processors led the losers’ chart by 6.90 per cent each to close at 27 kobo and N3.24, per share. UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) followed with a decline of 4.00 per cent to close at 96 kobo, while Japaul Gold & Ventures declined by 3.45 per cent to close at 28 kobo, per share.
Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) lost 3.08 per cent to close at N1.26, while Mutual Benefits Assurance shed 3.03 per cent to close at 32 kobo, per share.
The total volume traded grew by 25.77 per cent to 149.781 million shares, worth N1.542 billion, and traded in 3,186 deals. Transactions in the shares of Oando topped the activity chart with 14.287 million shares valued at N62.640 million. Trancorp followed with 11.716 million shares worth N14.734 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 10.734 million shares valued at N53.748 million.
Chams Holding Company traded 10.293 million shares valued at N2.859 million, while United Bank of Africa (UBA) transacted 9.110 million shares worth N77.143 million.
