By Francis Ogwo
Equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange continued in green with investors gaining N324 billion in capital.
This was with a close at N17.383 trillion from N17.059 trillion recorded as opening value.
The result is investors gaining N1.18 trillion in three days of trading with a growth of N641 billion and N212 billion on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
The benchmark index, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 621.26 points, representing a growth of 1.90 per cent to close at 33,268.36 points as against 32,647.10 points recorded as opening index.
The month-to-date and year-to-date returns increased to 9.0 per cent and 23.94 per cent, respectively.
There were also gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks with Nigerian Breweries, Presco, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN), Guinness and NASCON Allied Industries topping the list.
The price movement chart showed that 51 stocks recorded price gain compared with seven losers.
The gainers charts were led by Fidson Healthcare, Guinness, Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals and Sterling Bank in percentage terms as they gained 10 per cent each, to close at N4.95, N20.90, N2.42 and N2.20 per share, respectively.
GlaxoSmithKline followed with 9.85 per cent to close at N7.25, while Oando rose by 9.82 per cent to close at N3.58 per share.
Conversely, Learn Africa topped the losers’ chart in percentage terms, losing 4.76 per cent to close at N1 per share.
C&I Leasing followed with a loss of 4.65 per cent to close at N4.10, while Stanbic IBTC declined by 4.17 per cent to close at N46 per share.
Linkage Assurance dropped 4.08 per cent to close at 47k, while Red Star Express shed 3.68 per cent to close at N3.40 per share.
In the same vein, the total volume of trades transacted rose by 48.27 per cent as investors bought and sold 858.16 million shares valued at N9.06 billion in 8,142 deals.
This was in contrast with 578.78 million shares worth N7.74 billion achieved in 7,651 deals on Tuesday.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 145.05 million shares valued at N1.08 billion.
United Bank for Africa accounted for 52.87 million shares worth N469.67 million, while Access Bank transacted 44.05 million shares worth N400.98 million.
Transcorp sold 126.26 million shares worth N141.21 million, while Zenith Bank traded 60.81 million shares valued at N1.52 billion.
