The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the week on a positive note, consolidating on its previous week’s gains as the market capitalisation gained N97.09 billion to close at N12.07trillion from N11.97 trillion at which it opened the week.

The All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 348.90 basis points to close at 37, 765.84 points as against 37,461.90 points recorded in the beginning of the week, appreciating by 0.81 per cent.

The market turnover stood at N16.47 billion being the value of 1.71 million ordinary shares which exchanged hands in 22,925 deals during the week. Driven by demand for shares in the banking sub-sector, the financial services sector remained the most sought after accounting for 83 per cent of market turnover with 1.43 billion shares worth N9.76 billion traded. For the sectoral indices, the NSE-30 index was up 0.98 per cent week-on-week while NSE Consumer Goods index gained 2.92 per cent.

On the other hand, the NSE-Banking index shed 0.60 per cent; the NSE-Insurance index declined 1.04 per cent while the NSE-Oil & Gas index posted the highest decline of 2.83 per cent.

Stockbrokers have noted that sell pressure continued to weigh down on shares of the banking sector on the back of the unimpressive earnings posted by some banks. Summary for the trading activities for the week showed that 38 equities appreciated in prices, 44 equities depreciated in prices while 115 equities remained unchanged.

Wema Bank Plc topped the gainers’ table for the week with N0.16 kobo to close the day’s trading at N1.14 kobo per share. This represents 14.04 per cent price appreciation from its opening value of N1.30 kobo. It was followed by UBA Capital Plc  topping with N0.16 kobo per share to close at N1.46 kobo. Associated Bus Company Plc added N0.09 kobo per share to close at N0.85 kobo per share.

IPWA Plc led the price losers’ table. The company shed N0.11kobo to close transaction at N0.70 per share. Skye Bank Plc dropped by N0.53 kobo to close at N4.10 kobo per share, while Access

Bank Plc shed N1.08 kobo to close at N9.31 kobo per share. While Unity Bank Plc on Friday released its third quarter earnings ended September 31, 2013 with Gross Earnings rose by 16.66 per cent to N45.39 billion but the bank’s profit declined by 63.97 per cent to N1.15 billion.