Seplat, Dangote Cement, Others Lift Equity Market Up 045%
UMORU ABDULKADIR
The Bulls chased the bears out of the Nigerian Stock market Thursday as they take a tight grip on the market, returning it to the positive territory after the previous day’s marginal loss.
Today’s positive outlook was buoyed by price appreciations in high and medium cap stocks of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Cap Plc, Dangote Cement, Unilever Plc as well as Bua Cement, among others.
Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 133.08 basis points or 0.45 per cent to close at 29,591.29 points as against 29,458.21 reported on Wednesday, while the market capitalisation advanced by N68.55 billion or 0.45 per cent to close at N15.242 trillion in contrast to N15.174 achieved the preceding day.
Consequently, the market breadth closed flat, as Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc led 14 gainers against 14 losers topped by MTN Nigeria.
A look at the price movement chart, shows that Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc topped the gainers’ table, gaining by N12 to close at N600 per share, followed by Cap Plc, which nicked 250 kobo to close at N27.5 per share. Dangote Cement appreciated by 210 kobo to close at N174.9 per share.
While Unilever Plc inched up 145 kobo to close at N19.45 per share, Bua Cement recorded 80 kobo gain to close the today’s trading at N37.8 per share, among others.
Conversely, MTN Nigeria led the worst-performing stocks on Thursday, losing 120 kobo to close at N127 per share, followed by Ecobank Transnational Corporation which declined by 10 kobo to also close at N7.6 per share. United Bank for Africa and Guaranty Trust Bank both shed 10 kobo to close at N8.65 and N32.1 per share respectively, while Honeywell Flour closed trade at N1.08 per share, depreciating by 9 kobo to round off the chart for the top five losers.
Meanwhile, at the close of trading on Thursday, United Bank for Africa emerged the top traded stock with the sale of 26.6 million shares valued at N227 million in 274 deals. First City Monument Bank Plc traded 23.4 million shares estimated at N46.6 million across 74 deals, followed by Access Bank Plc which exchanged 20.4 million shares worth N206.1 million achieved in 282 deals.
While Guaranty Trust Bank sold 15.9 million shares valued at N513 million over 197 deals, Zenith Bank Plc accounted for 15.23 million shares of the total turnover estimated at N334.98 million across 280 deals.
However, the activity level was mixed as volume traded declined by 37.6 per cent from 315.67 million shares to 196.93 million units of shares, as the value of traded stocks also appreciated by 111.84 per cent from N3.64 billion of yesterday to N7.11 billion, achieved in 2,915 deals.
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