Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on the upbeat on Friday with the market capitalisation improving by N24 billion following marginal gains by some blue chips.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation, which opened at N12.823 trillion, rose by N24 billion or 0.19 per cent to close at N12.847 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index inched up by 68.74 points or 0.19 per cent to close at 37,120.28 from 37,051.54 recorded on Thursday.

Forte Oil recorded the highest price gain to lead the price gainers’ table with N2.10 to close at N44.10 per share.

Cadbury followed with a gain of N1.14 to close at N12.34, while International Breweries inched up by N1.01 to close at N50 per share.

Nigerian Breweries garnered 90 kobo to close at N143.90, while GTBank chalked up 50 kobo to close at N43 per share.

Conversely, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria topped the price losers’ table with a loss of 43 kobo to close at N9.27 per share.

Fidson Healthcare trailed with a loss of 18 kobo to close at N3.76, while Access Bank was down by 12 koko to close at N9.91 per share.

Champion Breweries dipped by 11 kobo to close at N2.09, while Zenith international Bank shed 10 kobo to close at N25 per share.

NAN reports that a total of 175.28 million shares valued at N2.65 billion were exchanged by investors in 3,235 deals.

This was against the 175.75 million shares worth N3.52 billion transacted in 3,357 deals on Thursday.

The banking equities were the most active with Zenith Bank trading 32.95 million shares worth N824.22 million.

FBN Holdings followed with 23.99 million shares valued at N172.73 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 16.66 million shares worth N27.64 million.

FCMB Group traded 15.76 million shares worth N18.11 million, while Diamond Bank exchanged 14.40 million shares valued at N16.68 million. (NAN)

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