Gains and a price rally in 51 equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian stock market led to a bullish close on Tuesday as the market continued its upward trend.
The market capitalisation inched up by N1.74 trillion, or 2.03 per cent, to close at N87.191 trillion, higher than the N85.455 trillion recorded on Monday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) climbed by 2,746.36 absolute points, or 2.03 per cent, to reach 137,912.87 basis points compared to the 135,166.51 basis points of the previous day.
The upward trend and positive sentiment were driven by strong buying interest in medium- and large-capitalised stocks like Berger Paints, Learn Africa, MTN Nigeria, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, Halldane McCall and 46 other stocks.
The market sentiment, when measured by market breadth, closed positive with 51 gainers and 25 losers.
On price movement, Berger Paints, Learn Africa, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria and Halldane McCall led the gainers’ chart with a 10 per cent increase in their respective share prices to end the session at N34.10k, N6.93k, N3.19k and N4.73 per share.
Also, MTN Nigeria soared by 9.99 per cent, closing at N451.60 per share.
Conversely, Abbey Mortgage Bank and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills recorded a 10 per cent decline in their respective share prices to settle at N7.20k and N93.15k per share.
Vitafoam Nigeria shed by 9.96 per cent, to finish at N79.10k and Industrial and Medical Gases lost by 9.93 per cent, to end the session at N37.65k per share.
International Breweries fell by 7.10 cent, closing at N15.05 per share.
A total of 940.80 million shares worth N30.63 billion were traded across 28,358 transactions.
This is compared to 795.59 million shares worth N23.2 billion that was exchanged across 37,626 transactions earlier.
Top volumes
Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 111.27 million shares worth N2.33 billion.
Royal Exchange followed with 74.07 million shares valued at N110.8 million while Jaiz Bank transacted 60.86 million shares worth N238.19 million.
Also, Universal Insurance sold 38.28 million shares valued at N28.8 million, while Access Corporation traded 36.81 million shares worth N1 billion.