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Investors at the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday recorded additional gains on
their equities’ value, as market closed trading on a positive note.

The Exchange market
capitalisation of the 199 First-Tier equities closed yesterday at
N5.999 trillion after opening the day at N5.988 trillion, reflecting
0.18 percent upturn or over N11 billion gains. Meanwhile, about N174
billion has been recovered since transaction began this week.

The NSE All-Share
Index on Thursday also appreciated by 0.18 percent or a gain of 45.8
units from Wednesday’s figures of 24,439.37 basis points, to close at
24,485.17.

Four NSE sectoral
indexes reflected the positive outlook yesterday as the NSE-30 Index,
which measures the performance of blue chips in the market, gained by
0.15 percent; the NSE Food/Beverages gained the highest points by 0.99
percent; Insurance gained by 0.58 percent; the NSE banking, the only
loser, declined by 0.17 percent, while the NSE Oil/Gas moved up by 0.50
percent.

Analysts at
Resource Cap, a portfolio management company, said its outlook for the
market remains positive following the “various measures by the NSE’s
management to restore investors’ confidence in the market.”

Banking sector leads

The banking
subsector was the most active on Thursday, leading market transaction
volume with 84.37 million units of shares valued at N635.17 million, as
against the 198.59 million units of shares valued at N1.65 billion
recorded on Wednesday.

The volume recorded
in the sector was driven by transaction in the shares of Zenith Bank,
First Bank, Intercontinental Bank, and Access Bank. The four stocks
accounted for 21.74 percent of the entire market volume.

The Insurance
subsector followed, trading 30.40 million shares valued at N17.98
million. Transactions in the subsector were largely driven by the
shares of Goldlink Insurance, which accounted for about 75 percent of
the subsector’s volume.

The Food/Beverages
subsector came third with investors trading 15.98 million shares valued
at N483.53 million. Investors in Cadbury and Dangote Sugar enhanced
activities in the subsectors in terms of volume.

More gainers

The number of
gainers at the close of trading session yesterday closed higher at 33
as against the 32 gainers recorded previous day; while losers closed
lower at 18, compared with the 24 stocks recorded on Wednesday.

Flour Mills Nigeria
led the price gainers’ chart, appreciating by N1.40 to close at N69.70
per share. Cadbury shares went up by N1.38 to close at N31.70, while
African Petroleum grew by N1.30 to end at N27.83.

Cement Company of
Northern Nigeria led the price losers’ chart, shedding 60 kobo to close
at N13.40. Unilever lost 48 kobo to close at N29.54, while Dangote
Flour Mills depreciated by 35 kobo to end the day at N15.00 per share.

Meanwhile, as
requested by the board of directors of the concerned companies, the
Exchange on Thursday adjusted the prices of Chellarams Plc and
Custodian & Allied Insurance Plc for a dividend of 8 kobo and 6
kobo respectively.