FRIDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2010 00:00 BY HELEN OJI AND FEMI ADEKOYA

THE bullish rally, which opened transactions in the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at the beginning of the week, continued yesterday as corporate performance indicators of the Exchange rose by 1.86 per cent.

At the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index rose by 474.92 points from 25,416.21 points, at which it closed on Wednesday, to 25,891.13 points, while market capitalisation of listed equities closed higher at N8.267 trillion, up from N8.116 trillion recorded the previous day.

In volume terms, a total of 610.9 million shares worth N5.93 billion were exchanged by investors yesterday, in contrast to a total of 557.2 billion shares valued at N4.66 billion, which changed hands at the close of transactions on Wednesday.

Accounting for the bulk of the day’s volume, the banking sub-sector was the most active in volume terms with a traded volume of 430.2 million shares worth N3.44 billion, followed by the information and communication technology sub-sector with 78.4 million shares valued at N155.7 million, while the insurance sub-sector exchanged 25.4 million shares worth N23.8 million.

Further review of activities in the sub-sectors showed that the volume in the banking sub-sector was largely boosted by 124.6 million shares of United Bank for Africa Plc worth N1.18 billion, followed by Access Bank Plc with 48.2 million shares valued at N452 million, while Fidelity Bank Plc traded 36.5 million shares worth N101.8 million.

In the information and communication technology sub-sector, 75.1 million shares of Starcomms Plc worth N148.1 million buoyed the volume in the sub-sector, while investors staked N11.9 million in 10.9 million shares of AIICO Insurance Plc, to energise the sub-sector’s volume.

On the day’s price movement chart, two banks’ stocks, First Bank of Nigeria Plc and Skye Bank Plc, led the bulls, up by 65 kobo and 39 kobo to close at N13.65 per share and N8.20 per share.

Furthermore, Presco Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, May and Baker Nigeria Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, and Fidson Healthcare Plc, all added 30 kobo, 24 kobo, 22 kobo, 19 kobo and 14 kobo each to close at N6.30, N5.19, N4.62, N4.07 and N2.97 respectively.

On the other hand, African Petroleum Plc, topped the day’s losers’ chart with a loss of 114 kobo to close at N22.86 per share, followed by Larfarge WAPCO Plc with 95 kobo to close at N41.05 per share, while Conoil Plc ranked third with a loss of 94 kobo to close at N38 per share.

Similarly, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Cement Company Of Northern Nigeria Plc, International Breweries Plc, Costain West Africa Plc all shed 90 kobo, 55 kobo, 34 kobo, and 22 kobo each to close at N152, N14.15, N6.65 and N8.00 respectively.

Source: Guardian