MTN Leads Top Gainers as Stock Market Gains N408bn

• MTN Leads Top Gainers as Stock Market Gains N408bn

The Nigerian Stock Exchange sustained its bullish run for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday as MTN Nigeria Communications Plc led 11 other firms to the top of the chart.

The market capitalisation of listed equities gained N408 billion from N13.309 trillion on Tuesday to N13.717 trillion on Wednesday. While the NSE All-Share Index gained 3.09 percent to 31,145.15 basis points.

Once again, MTN Nigeria led top gainers for a fifth consecutive day to close at N144.85 a share. Representing an increase of 9.98 percent.

Followed by Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, with an increase of 9.82 per cent to close at N3.87 per share.

Dangote Cement Plc (9.73 per cent), Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc (8.11 per cent) and University Press Plc (5.88 per cent) to N203, N0.40 and N1.80 per share, respectively.

Other gainers were GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Unity Bank Plc, UAC of Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Custodian Investments Plc, Dangote Flour Mills Plc and Conoil Plc.

The year-to-date loss improved further from -3.9 percent on Tuesday to -0.9 percent.

Activity level was however mixed as volume traded declined by 12.2 percent to 294.4 million units and value traded advanced to N17.5 billion.

Experts at Afrinvest Securities said: “MTN Nigeria (93.7 million units), Zenith Bank Plc (29.5 million units) and United Bank for Africa Plc(22.4 million units) were the most traded stocks by volume while MTN Nigeria (N13.6bn), Dangote Cement (N1.7bn) and Zenith (N566.4m) led top traded stocks by value.

“Performance across sectors was largely bearish as four of five indices under our coverage trended southwards. The consumer goods index led decliners, down 3.6 per cent on account of sell-offs in Nestle (-7.7 per cent) and Nigerian Breweries Plc (-0.7 per cent).”