By Francis Ogwo
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a 60% increase in transaction volume at Tuesday’s trading flow, due to the All-Share Index (ASI) which closed at 26,824.50 points.
The percentage increase was as a result of the gains in the shares of FBN Holdings, Access Bank and GT Bank, which had the All Share Index (ASI) moving higher by 0.13% to close at 26,824.50 points, leading to a slight improvement in YTD loss at -14.7%.
This also saw market capitalization record an improvement by N44 billion to settle at N12.946 trillion.
There was a mix of activities as volume traded advanced 16.6% to 268.7m units, while value traded declined 48.3% to N1.2bn.
Active stocks by volume were Mbenefit (99.4m units) FCMB (21.9m units), and FBNH (17.9m units), while Guaranty Trust Bank (N170.4m), Zenith Bank (N168.1m) and MTN Nigeria (N99.7m) led the value chart.
There were records of bullish performances across sectors with three of six indices closed in the green. The Industrial Goods Index topped gainers up 2.6% due to sustained interest in BUA Cement (+4.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, gains in Mbenefit (+10.0%), Dangote Sugar (+2.7%) and Honey Flour (+1.2%) pushed the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices higher by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.
There was also a decline in the banking index by 0.2% due to price depreciation in FBNH (-2.7%) and Access bank (-0.8%), while the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth, fell to 0.6x from the 2.8x recorded in the previous session as 13 stocks gained relative to 22 losers.
The top gainers were Royalex (+10.0%), BOC Gas (+10.0%) and Mbenefit (+10.0%), while Mobil (-8.0%), Fidson (-7.7%) and Japaul Oil (-7.4%) led the top declines.
