After declining for two consecutive trading days lastweek, indices of the equities market on the Nigerian Stock Exchange recorded a marginal growth of 0.02 per cent.
For instance, the All-Share Index, which opened at 27,602.77, improved by 4.25 points or 0.02 per cent to close at 27,607.02, while the market capitalisation garnered N3bn to close at N13.431tn against N13.428tn on Tuesday.
Although, the marginal growth recorded in the midweek was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, including MTN Nigeria, Forte Oil, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Dangote Cement and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected a bearish performance to resurface in the market due to the absence of economic stimulus to stoke investors’ confidence in equities.
Market breadth closed the same with 13 gainers and 13 decliners.
Continental Reinsurance, Cornerstone Insurance and John Holts recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at N1.43, 22k and 55k, respectively, per share.
Unity Bank trailed with 8.33 per cent to close at 65k, while Forte Oil appreciated by 5.48 per cent to close at N15.40 per share.
Wapic Insurance appreciated by 5.41 per cent to close at 39k, while Oando appreciated by four per cent to close at N3.90 per share.
Conversely, Honeywell Flour Mills led the losers’ chart with 7.41 per cent to close at N1 per share.
PZ Cussons lost 5.60 per cent to close at N5.90, while Access Bank shed 5.15 per cent to close at N6.45 per share.
Fidelity Bank dipped 4.73 per cent to close at N1.61, while Charms dropped by 3.45 per cent to close at 28k per share.
Despite the marginal growth recorded by the market indices, the volume of shares traded declined by 29.01 per cent.
Consequently, investors bought and sold 130.37m shares worth N3.01bn exchanged in 2,866 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 183.65m shares valued at N4.5bn transacted in 3,558 deals last Tuesday.
Transcorp drove the activity chart with 39.09m shares valued at N41.74m. MTN Nigeria Communications came second with 15.27m shares valued at N2.14bn, while Lafarge Africa traded 10.44m shares worth N147.73m.
Zenith Bank sold 7.57m shares valued at N140.06m, while FBN Holdings transacted 6.73m shares worth N32.77m.
