Bulls persist on NSE, index crosses 36,000 mark

The nation’s bourse on Thursday continued positive run for the fourth straight trading session with the benchmark index crossing 36,000 mark due to interest in Airtel Africa and 29 other stocks.

Specifically, the All-Share Index inched higher by 746.47 points or 2.10 per cent to close at 36,239.62 compared with 35,493.15 recorded on Wednesday.

Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns increased to 3.4 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the market capitalisation appreciated by N390 billion or 2.10 per cent to close at N18.940 trillion from N18.550 trillion on Wednesday.

The uptrend was driven by price appreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement, Okomu Oil, Unilever Nigeria and Ardova.

Market sentiment was positive with 30 stocks gainers, relative to 17 losers.

Airtel Africa led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, gaining 10 per cent to close at N774.40 per share.

Ardova followed with 9.96 per cent to close at N13.25, while FTN Cocoa appreciated by 9.62 per cent to close at 57k per share.

Unilever improved by 9.54 per cent to close at N14.35, while AXA Mansard rose by 9.09 per cent to close at 84k per share.

On the other hand, Omatek Ventures and Wapic Insurance dominated the losers’ chart in percentage terms, losing 9.09 per cent each to close at 20k and 40k per share, respectively.

Champion Breweries trailed with a loss of 8.99 per cent to close at 81k per share.

University Press lost 7.25 per cent to close at N1.28, while Union Diagnostic shed 6.90 per cent to close at 27k per share.

Meanwhile, the total volume of shares traded declined by 47.1 per cent with an exchange of 343.64 million shares worth N4.35 billion in 3,895 deals.

This was in contrast with 650.55 million shares valued at N2.29 million shares achieved in 3,952 deals on Wednesday.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 99.39 million shares worth N700.45 million.

Skyway Aviation Handling Company followed with 24 million shares valued at N64.02 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 22.31 million shares worth N187.38 million.

Access Bank sold 20.87 million shares valued at N174.16 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 15.77 million shares worth N388.71 million.