By Michael Eboh and Providence Obuh
The bullish trend on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), continued, Tuesday, as the value of listed equities, despite significant decline in the four sectoral indices, appreciated by N17.28 billion.

Specifically, equities’ value, represented by the market capitalisation, went up by 0.28 per cent to close the day’s trading at N6.169 trillion from N6.152 trillion at which it opened.

The All-share index, another market indices, shed 71.76 basis points to close at 25,228.22 points from 25,156.46 points.

The improvement in the market indices was occasioned by gains on the share prices of major highly capitalised stocks, represented by the NSE 30 index, which rose by 0.36 per cent to 1,052.69 points.

This was in spite of a slide in the four sectoral indices — The NSE Food/Beverage Banking, Insurance and Oil/Gas Indices.The NSE Food/Beverage index dipped by 0.05 per cent to close at 812.54 points, NSE Banking index shed 0.59 per cent to close at 377.66 points, NSE Insurance index slide by 0.51 per cent to 276.26 points while the NSE Oil/Gas index dropped by 0.32 per cent to close at 371.85 points.

Nigerian Breweries Plc recorded the most share price gain on the gainers table with a gain of N3.14 to close at N72.60 per share, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills Plc followed with a gain of N1.94 to close at N40.80 per share and Guinness Nigeria Plc garnered N1.00 to close at N165.00 per share.

Other share price gainers include: Okomu Oil Palm Plc N0.70, Benue Cement Company Plc N0.50, UAC Nigeria Plc N0.45, National Salt Company Nigeria  Plc N0.38, Ecobank Transnational Incorporation Plc N0.33, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc N0.25, Oando Oil Plc N0.20, among others.

Conversely, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc led on the losers’ table, dropping by N1.45 to close at N71.05 per share, African Petroleum Plc followed with a loss of N1.30 to close at N24.71 per share and Nigeria Aviation Handling Company Plc dipped by N0.50 to close at N9.64 per share.

Other share price losers include: Unilever Nigeria Plc N0.47, UAC-Property Development Company Plc N0.39, Zenith Bank Plc N0.29, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc N0.23, Ashaka Cement Plc N0.23, Diamond Bank Plc N0.21, Honeywell Flour Mill Plc N0.21, among others.

Equity trading depreciated by 26.78 per cent, as a turnover of 192.63 million shares valued at N2.04 billion was recorded in 6,285 deals, in contrast to the previous day’s turnover of 263.08 million shares valued at N2.31 billion in 5,819 deals.

The Banking sub-sector dominated the other sub-sectors on the sectorial analysis, accounting for 61.41 per cent of the market turnover, with 118.30 million shares valued at N963.14 million in 3,650 deals.

Fidelity Bank Plc led the sub-sector trading 19.57 million shares valued at N49.51 million in 163 deals United Bank for Africa Plc followed with the exchange of 18.57 million shares valued at N192.93 million in 375 deals and First Bank of Nigeria Plc recorded 15.41 million shares valued at N200.6 million in 868 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector followed on the sectorial analysis, accounting for 13.51 per cent of the market turnover with 26.03 million shares valued at N29.12 million in 252 deals.

AIICO Insurance Plc recorded the most patronage in the sub-sector trading 8.09 million shares valued at N9.53 million in 67 deals, Guinea Insurance Plc followed with the exchange of five million shares valued at N2.50 million in seven deals and Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc recorded 4.99 million shares valued at N10.06 million in 47 deals.