Stock market closes with N99bn gain

The Nigerian stock market on Friday closed the week on a positive note, with investors adding N99 billion to their portfolios.

Notably, the market capitalisation of listed equities increased by N99 billion or 0.18 per cent from an opening of N55.379 trillion to settle at N55.478 trillion.

The All-Share Index also went up by 0.18 per cent or 172.13 points, to close at 96,580.01, against 96,407.88 recorded on Thursday.

As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose by 29.16 per cent.

The impressive performance of the market was driven by investors buy interest in FBN Holdings, Guaranty Trust Holding Company(GTCO),Total Energies, Oando Plc, Transnational Corporation, among other advanced equities.

Meanwhile, market breadth maintained the positive momentum with 27 gainers outnumbering 25 losers on the floor of the Exchange.

On the gainers chart, Berger Paints and Deap Capital Management and Trust Plc led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30 and N88k per share.

Oando followed by 9.94 per cent gain to close at N76.90, McNichols gained 9.93 per cent to close at N1.55, and Daar Communications advanced by 8.96 per cent to close at 73k per share.

On the other hand, Eterna Plc led the losers’ chart by 9.95 per cent to close at N27.60, RT Briscoe trailed by 9.90 per cent to close at N3.55 per share.

Tantalizers also lost 7.25 per cent to close at 64k, Chams dropped 7.17 per cent to close at N2.20, while Eunisell Interlinked Plc shed 6.25 per cent to close at three Naira per share.

Analysis of the market activities indicated that trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions increasing by 326 per cent.

Investors exchanged a total of 573.96 million shares worth N31.58 billion in 12,754 deals, compared to 966.97 million shares valued at N7.42 billion exchanged in 9,851 deals posted previously.

On the activity chart, Julius Berger emerged as the most traded stock in volume and value, with 120.76 million shares valued at N19.63 billion.