The nation’s bourse on Wednesday extended positive sentiment with the market capitalisation appreciating by N471 billion in a day.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N13.316 trillion inched N471 billion or 3.54 per cent to close at N13.787 trillion.
Consequently, the Year-to-Date gains expanded to 6.41 per cent.
Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) rose 975.55 points, representing a growth of 3.54 per cent to close at 28,562.48 compared with 27,586.93 on Tuesday.
Market analysts attributed the early-year rally at the nation’s premier securities exchange to higher oil prices and the Central Bank of Nigeria crushing rates on Treasury Bills.
It would be recalled that oil prices opened much higher after Iran’s strikes on US-Iraqi bases. But they are now below 70 dollars per barrel again.
They said the trend may be sustained as many companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) prepared to release their full year financials from February.
The market analysts noted that the earnings may increase the positive look of the market with more investors buying into value stocks with history of good dividend payments and capital appreciation.
Also, analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated that “Following the recent trend in the market, we maintain our bullish outlook on the market this week.”
Market breadth closed positive with 37 gainers and 11 losers.
FBN Holdings and Union Diagnostic led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, growing by 10 per cent each to close at N7.70 and 22k per share, respectively.
Julius Berger came second with a gain of 9.80 per cent to close at N21.85 per share.
Conoil grew by 9.74 per cent to close at N20.85, while Cornerstone Insurance appreciated by 9.52 per cent, to close at 69k per share.
Conversely, Tripple Gee led the losers’ chart by 9.38 per cent to close at 58k per share.
UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust (UPDCREIT) followed with a decline of 8.99 per cent to close at N4.05, while Thomas Wyatt Nigeria went down by 7.89 to close at 35k per share.
UACN Property Development Company dipped 7.41 per cent to close at N1, while Champion Breweries shed 5.26 per cent to close at 90k per share.
Also, the total volume of shares sold rose by 66.19 per cent as investors bought and sold 741.82 million shares worth N9.22 billion traded in 7,622 deals.
This was against a total of 446.38 million shares valued at N5.82 billion exchanged in 5,727 deals on Tuesday.
Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA) topped the activity chart with 156.01 million shares worth N1.40 billion.
Zenith Bank followed with 86.06 million shares valued at N1.89 billion, while Access Bank accounted for 82.44 million shares worth N963.67 million.
FBN Holdings sold 69.4 million shares valued at N524.56 million, while Transcorp transacted 62.88 million shares worth N67.61 million. (NAN)
