By Nkiruka Nnorom
The bulls upstaged the bears today at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, following marginal gains in some of the highly capitalised stocks, including Dangote Cement Plc, Access Bank Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc and Union Bank of Nigeria, UBN Plc.

NSE moves 403.14m shares worth N9.14bn

The appreciation in the highly and 14 other companies resulted in increase in the All Share Index, ASI, by 0.25 percent to 40,874.09 points.

In the same vein, the investors’ networth, represented by equities capitalisation, rose by N36 billion or 0.25 percent to close at N14.764 trillion from N14.728 trillion on Wednesday.

This fuelled by investors interest in embattled Oando Plc, which led the gainers’ table with 6.08 percent to close at N9.60 from N9.05. Courtville Business Solution, CBS, Plc followed, rising by five percent to close at N0.21 from N0.20; Eterna Plc ranked third with 4.82 percent increase to close at N6.52 from N6.22 per share.

Fidson Healthcare Plc placed fourth, appreciating by 4.68 percent to close at N6.04 from N5.77, while Wema Bank Plc was up 4.65 percent to close at N0.90 from N0.86 per share.

Conversely, 24 companies recorded price decline, led by First Aluminium Nigeria, FAN Plc, which depreciated by 7.55 percent to close at N0.49 from N0.53.

11 Plc, formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, fell by 4.74 percent to close at N181.00 from N190.00. FCMB Group went down by four percent to close at N2.40 from N2.50; Transcorp Plc depreciated by 3.55 percent to close at N1.63 from N1.69, while May & Baker Plc, which closed the list of the top five losers, dropped by 3.45 percent to close at N2.80 from N2.90 per share.