Equities trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) began the week on a positive note with a marginal growth of 0.01 percent. The NSE All Share Index closed at 25,743.03 points, compared to 25,740.83 points recorded at the end of Friday’s session and Market Capitalization grew from N8.692 trillion to close at N8.856 trillion.
Oil and Gas Stocks maintained appreciation following OPEC’s production cut decision, albeit at a slower pace with a growth of 3.57 percent compared to 4.18 percent growth recorded on Friday, while the Consumer goods Index recorded a gain of 0.05 percent to close at 718.65 points.
Whilst the Oil & Gas Index grew on account of increases in Forte Oil, Total and Oando, a 4.83 percent growth in Dangote Sugar and a 2.63 percent appreciation in Cadbury was responsible for the growth recorded in the NSE Consumer goods Index.
However the NSE Banking Index shed 0.51 percent to close at 258.39 points following decline recorded in Wema Bank that shed 3.51 percent and Stanbic’s loss of 3.33 percent.
Meanwhile, investor’s sentiments turned weak as market breadth closed with 15 gainers to 23 losers.
Forte Oil led the day’s advancing stocks with 10.24 percent growth to close at N71.94 per share, Total followed, improving by 10.11 percent to close at N276.15 per share, while Oando recorded a gain of 7.80 percent to close at N4.70 per share.
Transcorp recorded a gain of 7.04 percent to close at 76 kobo per share as Portland Paints emerged the fifth top gainer with a growth of 4.97 percent to close at N1.90 per share.
On the flip side, Guinness Nigeria led the day’s retreating stocks, with a 9.74 percent decline to close at N80.33 per share, Vitafoam lost 5 percent to close at N2.28 per share and Red Star Express dropped 4.94 percent to close at N4.23 per share.
Axamansard Insurance Plc depreciated 4.65 percent to close at N1.64 per share, and Neimeth Pharmaceuticals fell 4.55 percent to close at 63 kobo per share.
Zenith Bank emerged the most traded stock for the fifth day in a row with 29.5 million shares valued at N421 million, Wapic Insurance followed with 15.3 million units of shares worth N7.7 million while Guaranty Trust Bank came third with the sale of 14.9 million shares worth N343 milllion.
FBN Holdings traded 14.4 million shares worth N45.8 million and FCMB sold approximately 13.6 million shares at N13.6 million.
Overall, investors traded in 3048 deals, a total of 175.1 million valued at N3.1 billion compared to a total of 576.9 million shares worth N1.3 billion traded in 2,258 deals on Friday.
