The All-Share Index appreciated by 13.8 basis points to close at 25,460.45 points from 25,446.66 basis points it opened for trading, bringing equities market performance year-till-date to -4.95 percent as stock market activities on Wednesday took a positive turn, closing 0.05 percent higher than Tuesday.
Consequently, the market capitalisation closed at N8.775 trillion, following a growth of N4.8 billion.
Leading Wednesday’s 11 gaining stocks was Neimeth with a 4.92 percent growth to close at 64 kobo, Airservice was next with an appreciation of 4.60 percent to close at N2.50 and Vitafoam was third with 4.52 percent to close at N2.31. Caverton and Diamond Bank added 3.57 and 3.49 percent respectively to close at 87 and 89 kobo respectively.
On the flip side, Wapco, led the day’s 13 decliners with a loss of 5.90 percent to close at N541.78 per share, followed by AG Leventis, which shed 4.88 percent to close at 78 kobo per share, UAC Property depreciated by 4.21 percent to close at N2.05 per share, while UCAP and FBN Holdings dropped 2.70 and 2.40 percent each to close at N3.61 and N3.25 per share respectively.
AIICO Insurance emerged the most traded equity on Wednesday with an exchange of 143.4 million shares worth N86.0 million.
It was trailed by Diamond Bank having accounted for 37.5 million shares valued at N33.4 million, while Standard Trust Assurance recorded a sale of 30.0 million shares worth N15.0 million; Zenith Bank exchanged 23.9 million shares valued at N357.9 million while Afrinsure traded 17.3 million shares worth N8.7 million.
By the end of trading, investors had moved 347.8 million shares 67 percent higher than 207.2 million shares, sold previously, while value of equities traded for the day dropped 13 percent to N1.4 billion from N1.6 billion. The day’s transactions were carried out in 2934 deals compared to 2791 deals in previous session.
