Stock Market Watch: N 8.7 Billion traded in last session of 2012

The Nigerian Stock Market closed the last trading day of the year slightly down, shedding only 21 points. The All Share Index closed the year at 20,730.63.

The banking sub-sector appreciated by 0.75%, as top-tiers UBA, GTBank and First Bank closed the year with gains of 486, 179 and 56 points respectively. Ecobank, Skye and Stanbic also performed well gaining 476, 463 and 375 points respectively.

On the flip side, Sterling, Fidelity, Diamond and Zenith all closed the year in the red.

Profit takers continued their assault on the price of Nigerian Breweries which has performed well YTD, the stock was down 4.98% at the close of the last session of the year.

The infrastructure sector saw cement manufacturer Lafarge shed 389 points, Asaka gain 125 points even as Paint manufacturer Berger rose 496 points.

The Consumer Goods sub sector was awash with bullish sentiment, UAC and Leventis appreciated 498 and 455 points respectively. Unilever also gained a 175 points.

Flour Mills and Dangote’s NASCON led the Food and Beverages sub-sector gaining 499 and 497 points apiece. Cadbury also kept things moving with an appreciation of 364 points to its share price value.

The Insurance sub sector was also quite bullish as Goldlink, Custodian and NEM Insurance picked up 4.69%, 4.11% and 3.85% increase to their stock value.

Oil and Gas indigeous heavyweight Oando also close the year in the green with an appreciation of 476 points, Eterna was also up and by a hefty 4.96%. MRS Oil shed points, losing 2.75%, as did Forte Oil which only shed a marginal 17 points.

Other notable mentions today was C & I Leasing, gaining the maximum 5% or 500 points, JaPaul up 4.65%, Vitafoam (+4.55%), May & Baker (+4.74%). Ikeja Hotel was down 4.49%.

A whopping 1.1 billion shares were traded today, largely due to the exceptional volumes ofFirst Bank stock that was traded.

The value traded on the last day of 2011 was N 8.7 billion or $52.9 million.