Transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, on Thursday, August 17, halted bear run that has pulled down value of lead indices of the bourse for days.
The All Share Index appreciated by 0.59 per cent to close at 36,316.58 points as against 2.68 per cent depreciation recorded in the previous session, improving the Year-to-Date (YTD) returns to 35 percent. Likewise, market capitalisation gained N73.8 billion to close at N12.517 trillion.
However, market breadth, closed negative as with 15 gainers paired against 28 losers.
Fidson sat atop the gainers table adding 5 percent to close at N3.12, it was followed by May & Baker that rose by 4.98 percent to close at N2.95, while Flourmill added 4.94 percent to close at N28.89. Livestock feeds gained 4.94 percent to close at 85 kobo and Continental Re-insurance added 4.84 percent to close at N1.30.
Conversely, Eterna recorded a loss of 6.01 percent to close at N3.44. Mobil trailed with a decline of 5 percent to close at N225.06, NAHCO dropped 4.88 percent to close at N3.12, CCNN plunged 4.73 percent to close at N9.67 and Cutix fell 4.11 percent to close at N2.10.
A review of sectoral performance showed, the NSE Industrial Goods Index improved by 0.85 per cent, the NSE Insurance index added 0.34 per cent and the NSE Banking Index added 0.05 per cent, while the NSE Oil & Gas and consumer goods indices fell 1.17 and 0.42 percent respectively.
Custodian and Allied Insurance topped activity chart with the sale of 30.3 million shares valued at N115.1 million. Zenith Bank was next with the sale of 26 million shares worth N597.4 million. Guaranty Trust Bank exchanged 24.7 million shares worth N924.8 million, FBN Holdings traded 14.6 million shares valued at N87 million, while FCMB transacted 14.1 million shares at N15.7 million.
At the end of trading, a total volume of 225.1 million units of shares worth N5.479 million was traded by investors in 5,110 deals compared to a total of 224.8 million shares worth N5.1 billion, traded by investors in 4,822 deals.
