Stock Market Ends April With N80bn Gain

Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange finished the month of April on the positive rout as the All-Share Index and market capitalisation appreciated by 0.67 per cent.

Consequently, the ASI grew by 152.61 basis points or 0.67 per cent from 22,868.40 index points the previous day to 23,021.01 while the market capitalisation of equities appreciated by N80bn to close at N11.997tn from N11.917tn.

On the activity chart, premium subsector dominated in volume terms with 187.47 million shares exchanged in 2,303 deals. The subsector was enhanced by the activities in the shares of FBNH Plc and Access Bank Plc.

Other financial services subsector boosted by the activities on the shares of the FCMB Plc and Stanbic IBTC Plc followed with 47.97 million units traded in 323 deals.

In all, investors exchanged a total of 359.46 million shares exchanged in 4,946 deals.

A further analysis of the day’s trading showed that ARDOVA Nigeria Plc led the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N11.55 per share while UPL Plc followed with 9.28 per cent to close at N1.06 per share and Livestock Feeds Plc with a gain of 7.69 per cent to close at 70 kobo per share.

On the flip side, Prestige Insurance Plc led the losers’ chart with a drop of 9.09 per cent to close at 50 kobo per share. Courtville Business Solution Plc followed with a loss of 4.55 per cent to close at 21 kobo per share while Nigerian Breweries Plc dropped by 3.38 per cent to close at N30 per share.