January 29, 2018

Activities resumed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday on a positive note with the All-Share Index improving by 1.31 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index rose by 572.72 points or 1.31 per cent to close at 44,306.48 against 43,733.76 on Friday.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N15.691 trillion inched N191 billion to close at N15.882 trillion.

NAN reports that the market performance was contrary to market analysts’ expectations having predicted that the market would nosedive due to month-end portfolio rebalancing.

An analysis of the price movement table showed that the market growth was driven by Dangote Cement gaining N7.90 to close at N268 per share.

Stanbic IBTC followed with N1 to close at N45, while UACN added 60k to close at N17.60 per share.

Forte Oil grew by 60k to close at N50, while Eterna Oil increased by 43k to close at N5.89 per share.

On the other hand, Guinness topped the losers’ chart with a loss of N2 to close at N110 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with N1.80 loss to close at N150, while Dangote Sugar Refinery shed N1 to close at N20.95 per share.

Flour Mills was down by 50k to close at N30.90, while Guaranty Trust Bank declined by 30k to close at N48.70 per share.

However, the volume of shares traded dropped by 39.32 per cent with an exchange of 573.35 million shares valued at N5.88 billion achieved in 6,756 deals.

This was in contrast with 944.86 million shares worth N7.13 billion transacted in 8,166 deals on Friday.

FCMB Group drove the activity chart, trading 169.12 million shares worth N547.03 million.

Access Bank followed with an account of 42.53 million shares valued at N553.48 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 39.52 million shares worth N513.68 million.

Honey Well Flour exchanged 33.66 million shares valued at N91.50 million, while Zenith International Bank sold 32.84 million shares worth N1.02 billion.