The stock market on Thursday closed on a positive note with performance indices rising by 0.38 per cent amid increased buying interest and bargain hunting.
Truthng reports that the gain extended the market’s bullish run to an 11th consecutive session.
Market capitalisation rose by N623 billion, or 0.38 per cent, to close at N163.679 trillion, compared with N163.056 trillion on Wednesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index increased by 958.99 points, or 0.38 per cent, to settle at 252,150.01.
The positive trend was driven by strong buying interest in medium and large-capitalized stocks such as: Critical Minerals Financing Corp, RT Briscoe, Caverton Offshore Support Group, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, Linkage Assurance and 23 other stocks.
Consequently, the market’s Year-to-Date return strengthened to 62.04 per cent while the market breadth closed positively with 28 gainers and 24 losers.
Critical Minerals Financing Corp led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent, finishing at N2.97, RT Briscoe followed by 9.55 per cent, ending the session at N9.75 and Caverton Offshore Support Group gained by 8.75 per cent, settling at N4.35 per share.
Similarly, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company soared by 8.57 per cent, closing at N152 while Linkage Assurance improved by 7.36 per cent, finishing at N1.75 per share.
Conversely, Neimeth International Pharmaceutical topped the losers’ chart by 7.23 per cent, settling at N7.70, Ellah Lakes trailed by 5.33 per cent, closing at N8 while Mutual Benefits Assurance shed by 4.65 per cent, ending the session at N3.28 per share.
Also, Lasaco Assurance lost by 4.44 per cent, finishing at N1.72 and Wema Bank dropped by 3.93 per cent, closing at N30.55 per share.
Analysis of the market activity revealed improvement in the market value with decline in the volume and deals as 978.29 million shares worth N50.16 billion were traded in 48,558 transactions.
This contrasted Wednesday’s 1.59 billion shares valued at N45.82 billion that was exchanged across 49,836 deals.
Fidelity Bank led trading volume with 335.20 million shares, representing 34.26 per cent of the day’s total, while Seplat Energy recorded the highest traded value at N13.40 billion, accounting for 26.71 per cent of the total.
