Stock: Investors Gain N37bn On Blue-chip Firms

Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday halted marginal negative sentiment witnessed last Friday to begin the week with a N37bn gain.

The market performance indices, the NSE ASI, appreciated by 0.29 per cent with market breath closing positive as 25 stocks gained against 13 losers.

Consequently, the All-Share Index grew by 70.42 basis points or 0.29 per cent from 23,871.33 index points last Friday to 23,941.75 while the market capitalisation of equities appreciated by N37bn to close at N12.477tn from N12.440tn.

On the activity chart, premium subsector dominated in volume terms with 188.5 million shares exchanged in 1,649 deals.

The subsector was enhanced by the activities in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc.

Banking subsector boosted by the activities in the shares of GTBank Plc and Sterling Bank Plc followed with 59.73 million units traded in 1,514 deals.

In all, investors exchanged a total of 331 million shares in 5,544 deals.

Further analysis of the day’s trading showed that Okomu Oil Plc led the gainers with 9.99 per cent to close at N60.55 per share while Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Plc followed with 9.72 per cent to close at 79 kobo per share and BOC Gases Plc with a gain of 9.59 per cent to close at N4.00 per share.

On the flip side, Lasaco Insurance Plc led the losers’ chart with a drop of 7.41 per cent to close at 25 kobo per share. Cornerstone Insurance Plc and Jaiz Bank Plc followed with a loss of 6.78 per cent each to close at 55 kobo per share apiece while Wapic Insurance Plc dropped by 6.25 per cent to close at 30 kobo per share.