TheCable

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained the bullish performance on Wednesday trading session due to buying interest in shares belonging to Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and International Breweries.

Consequently, the all-share index (ASI) advanced by 0.14 percent to close at 25,171.32 points.

Also, investors gained N18.2 billion as market capitalisation rose to N13.1 trillion. This was against Tuesday’s session where investors gained N2 billion.

The month-to-date (MTD) increased by 1.9 percent while year-to-date (YTD) loss improved to -6.2 percent from -6.4 percent on Tuesday.

Activity level decreased as volume and value traded fell 33.6 percent and 37.6 percent respectively to 180 million units and N1.5 billion.

This is in contrast to a total of 271 million shares valued at N2.5 billion recorded on Tuesday.

The top traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (35.9 million units), Access Bank (29.1 million units) and Transcorp (16.5 million units) while Zenith Bank (N605.2 million), Guaranty Trust Bank (N201.3 million) and Access Bank (N187.4 million) led by value.

Across the top five NSE indices, three indices gained, one lost while the oil and gas index was flat.

The industrial index was the lone loser as it dropped by -0.04 percent on account of sell-offs in Chemical and Allied Products (-10.0 percent).

Conversely, the banking index recorded the strongest gain, advancing 0.81 percent.

In the same vein, price appreciation in AIICO Insurance and International Breweries lifted the insurance and consumer goods indices by 0.41 percent and 0.19 percent respectively.

Market breadth was negative as 13 stocks gained relative to the 14 that declined.

The top gainers were Studio Press, International Breweries and Jaiz Bank, while Chemical and Allied Products, Royal Exchange and PZ Nigeria topped the laggards.