By Thompson ABISOLA
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened trading for the week on Monday with the All-Share Index appreciating by 0.45 per cent in spite of technical obstructions.
The Exchange said that it encountered a technical glitch which impacted trading activities for about four hours.
Head of Share Services Division of NSE, Mr Bola Adeeko, said that the glitch was resolved and market transactions continued at 1.45 p.m.
Adeeko explained that a decision was taken to extend the trading hours on Monday to 3.30 p.m, from the usual time of 2.30 p.m.
He confirmed that the root cause of the disruption had been fully rectified.
According to Adeeko, NSE has a robust business continuity framework in place with processes designed to forestall and reduce the impact of such unpredictable technical glitches when they occur.
“The bourse has a solid track record of high availability and systems resilience, while working with some of the cutting edge technologies required to power up a modern Exchange and will continue to work to enhance this,” he said.
ASI was up by 134.09 absolute points, representing an increase of 0.45 per cent to close at 29,964.79 against 29,830.70 achieved on Friday.
Similarly, the market capitalisation increased by N50 billion, closing at N11.174 trillion compared with N11.124 trillion posted on Friday.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa, United Capital, Diamond Bank and Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN).
Dangote Cement led the gainers’ table during the day, appreciating by N3 to close at N189 per share.
Lafarge Africa followed with a gain of 25k to close at N12.50, while United Capital increased by 15k to close at N2.98 per share.
Diamond Bank added 7k to close at N2.09, while Dangote Floor grew by 5k to close at N6.30 per share.
Conversely, Guinness recorded the highest loss, declining by N1 to close at N65 per share.
NAHCO trailed with a loss of 39k to close at N3.21, while Linkage Assurance declined by 7k to close at 58k per share.
Wapic Insurance lost 4k to close at 40k, while Jaiz Bank went down by 3k to close at 50k per share.
Diamond Bank Plc recorded the highest volume of activities during the day, exchanging 44 million shares valued at N90.821 million.
It was followed by Access Bank with an account of 16.45 million shares valued at N92.31 million, while Zenith International Bank sold 12.19 million shares valued at N265.93 million.
Transcorp sold 9.78 million shares valued at N12.42 million. while United Bank for Africa traded 5.90 million shares worth N43.85 million.
The total volume of trades decreased by 35.82 per cent to 132.41 million units, valued at N1.09 billion and exchanged in 2,542 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 206.30 million shares worth N2.75 billion exchanged in 3,538 deals on Friday.
