The equities market reversed its bearish trend on Thursday, recording a gain of N520 billion.
This is after a three-day negative performance in the week.
The uptrend was driven by strong buying interest in stocks like: Ellah Lakes, Veritas Kapital, Honeywell Flour Mill, AXA Mansard, Royal Exchange and 36 other stocks.
The market capitalisation of listed equities increased by N520 billion, or 0.6 per cent, from N87.416 trillion to close at N87.936 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) soared by 0.6 per cent or 822.85 points to close at 138,980.01 compared to 138,157.16 on Wednesday.
The market breadth also closed positive with 41 gainers and 14 losers.
Ellah Lakes and Veritas Kapital led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent each, ending the session at N12.98 and N1.98 per share respectively.
Honeywell Flour Mill rose by 9.95 per cent, closing at N23.20 while AXA Mansard Insurance climbed by 9.94 per cent, settling at N15.82 per share.
Also, Royal Exchange grew by 9.94 per cent, finishing at N1.88 per share.
Conversely, Austin Laz led the losers’ chart by 9.75 per cent, closing at N2.87 while Neimeth International Pharmaceutical dropped by 8.33 per cent, settling at N6.05 per share.
DAAR Communications fell by 4.44 per cent, finishing at 86k and Champion Breweries declined by 4.15 per cent, ending the session at N15 per share.
Similarly, Unilever Nigeria dipped by 4.11 per cent, closing at N70 per share.
Analysis of the market activity revealed increase in the market volume and decline in the value and transactions.
A total of 1.82 billion shares valued at N15.9 billion were traded across 24,612 transactions, compared to 482.8 million shares worth N19.7 billion that was exchanged across 28,193 transactions earlier on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sovereign Trust Insurance topped the activity chart in volume with 1.4 billion shares valued at N4.2 billion.
Nigerian Breweries followed with 41.2 million shares worth N2.8 billion while Fidelity Bank transacted 30.56 million shares valued at N642.1 million.
Zenith Bank sold 26.4 million shares worth N1.7 billion and Universal Insurance traded 24.2 million shares valued at N28.2 million.
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