NSE ASI advances by 0.59% as investors gain ‎N52bn

EQUITIES trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rebounded on Tuesday, as lead market indices increased by 0.59 per cent.

The NSE All Share Index (ASI) added 147.93 points to close at 25,284.56 points while market capitalization grew N52 billion to close at N8.750trillion.

The day’s gain may however be unconnected to a reduction in February’s inflation rate in to 17.78 per cent from 18.72 per cent in January, as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The day’s biggest gainers were led by Airservice which rose 9.62 per cent to close at N3.19 per share, Eterna Oil followed with a growth of 7.74 per cent to close at N3.20 per share, Seplat Petroleum also added 5 percent to close at N399 per share.

Custodian Allied Insurance and Access Bank closed 4.95 per cent and 4.93 per cent higher to close at N3.39 and N6.60 per share respectively.

Highest losers for the day include Nascon with a loss of 5 percent to close at N6.65 per share, it was trailed by WAPCO which shed 4.91 per cent to close at N34.50 per share, ETI was next with a decline of 4.76 percent to close at N10 per share, Honeywell Flour dropped 4.76 percent to close at N1 per share, while NEM lost 4.60 percent to close at 83 kobo per share.

Top traded stocks for the day were Diamond Bank with N57.6 million shares worth N48.6 million, FBN Holdings was next with 32.9 million shares valued at N101.1 million while NEM emerged the third most traded stock with 25.9 million units of shares worth N22.5 million.

Fidelity Bank and Transcorp also made it to the top five traded stocks for the day, having traded 23.1 million and 17.4 million units of shares each, worth N19.2 million and N12.7 million respectively.

At the end of the day’s trade, investors in 2,543 deals moved 227.8 million units of shares valued at N928.5 million as against 245.4 million units of shares valued at N2.3 billion traded by investors in 3,260 deals previously