Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, took a positive turn at the close of trading today following significant activities on the shares of 21 companies. led by insurance and banking firms led by two insurance firms.

  Specifically, activity was concentrated on insurance and banking stocks, which have previously been recording price losses following the the new par value rule by the Exchange and release of their full year 2017 financial results respectively.
Consequently, the market capitalisation of all listed equities rebounded by N43 billion from N14.720 trillion on Wednesday to N14.766 trillion, representing 0.31 percent increase.
In the same, the All Share Index rose by 0.31 percent to settle at 40,875.69 points from 40,749.86 points.

      Analysis of the day’s trading showed that Prestige Assurance Plc led the pack of gainers with 9.30 percent increase to close at N0.47 from N0.43.
Another insurance firm, Lasaco Assurance Plc followed, appreciating by 5.56 percent to close at N0.38 from N0.36. Transcorp Plc placed third, rising by 4.85 percent to close at N1.73 from N1.65, while May & Baker Plc and Eterna Plc ranked fourth, appreciating by 4.66 percent each to close at N2.92 from N2.79 and N6.29 from N6.01 per share respectively.
On the other hand, 22 losers emerged during the day with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Plc leading by 9.61 percent decline to close at N31.50 from N34.85.
Jaiz Bank Plc emerged second on the list, declining by 8.11 percent to close at N0.68 from N0.74.
Japaul Oil and Maritime Plc fell by 7.55 percent to close at N0.49 from N0.53; International Breweries Plc went down by 4.96 percent to close at N51.70 from N54.40, while NPF Micro-finance Bank Plc depreciated 4.72 percent to close at N2.02 from N2.12 per share.