Thursday April 30 was indeed another day of positive returns to equity buyers as trading on Nigeria’s Bourse recorded increased patronage in favour of fundamentally sound stocks.
The stock market increased by 0.67 percent at the close of trading session. Week-to-date, the market has yielded positive return of 2.45 percent. The 8.08 percent gain seen only in April helped to moderate the record negative return year to date to -14. 24 percent.
Again, investors raised bets in shares of MTNN Plc which increased by 4.28percent to N112.
Ardova Plc also increased by 10percent to N11.55kobo. Lafarge Africa Plc gained 2.61percent to N11.8kobo, while Access Bank Plc was up by 3.94percent to N6.6kobo.
On the decliners list, Nigerian Breweries Plc led the pack after its share price moved from day open high of N31.05 to N30, losing N1.05 or 3.38percent.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) increased to 23,021.01points as against preceding trading day low of 22,868.40 points, while the value of listed stocks increased by N80billion, from N11.917trillion to N11.997trillion.
With the gradual easing of the lockdown imposed by the Federal Government next week, market watchers anticipate a gradual improvement in economic activities and expect a number of fundamentally sound stocks to continue to enjoy positive patronage in the near time.
In 4,946 deals, equity investors exchanged 359,467,419 units valued at N3.258billion.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
