Investors in the Nigerian Exchange Market raked in N792 billion in gains as stocks maintained a bullish trend on Thursday.

This comes as market capitalisation added N792 billion, or 0.125 percent, rising from an opening of N63.559 trillion to close at N64.351 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index gained 0.125 percent, or 1,300 points, to close at 105,530.74, in contrast to 104,230.73 recorded on Wednesday.
Analysis showed that the positive performance was primarily driven by price appreciations in MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Oando Plc, and other advanced equities.

To this end, the Year-To-Date, YTD, return advanced to 2.53 percent.

Meanwhile, the market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 25 losers.

On the gainers’ table, MTN Nigeria led with a gain of N22 to close at N242. Honeywell Flour followed with a gain of 82 kobo to close at N9.11, while Universal Insurance added 7 kobo to close at 78 kobo per share.

Transcorp Hotels gained N11.35 to close at N127.35, and Ikeja Hotel increased by N1.15 to close at N13.50 per share.

On the flip side, RT Briscoe led the losers’ chart with a loss of 26 kobo to close at N2.34. Sunu Assurances trailed with a loss of 90 kobo to close at N8.11 per share.

The Initiates Plc shed 27 kobo to close at N2.52, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust lost 19 kobo to close at N1.81, and Guinea Insurance dropped 8 kobo to close at 91 kobo per share.

An analysis of market activities showed that trade turnover also settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 48.09 percent.

A total of 481.69 million shares valued at N12.82 billion were exchanged in 12,824 deals, compared with 756.42 million shares valued at N24.69 billion traded in 13,551 deals in the previous session.

Universal Insurance led the activity chart in volume with 97.24 million shares, while Seplat led in the value of deals worth N4.56 billion.