Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rallied on Thursday following renewed positive sentiment in banking and oil and gas stocks after dropping for two consecutive days.
Specifically, the All-Share Index which opened at 26,790.10 increased by 34.40 points or 0.13 per cent to close at 26,824.50.
Also, the market capitalisation inched N17 billion to close at N12.947 trillion compared with N12.930 trillion recorded on Wednesday.
The uptrend was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Cadbury Nigeria, Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria, UACN, FBN Holdings and Oando.
Consequently, market breadth closed positive, with 19 gainers against losers.
Cadbury led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N9.90 per share.
Cutix followed with a gain of 9.72 per cent to close at N1.58, while GlaxoSmithkline rose by 9.65 per cent to close at N6.25 per share.
Union Diagnostic garnered 9.09 per cent to close at 24k, while UACN appreciated by 7.14 per cent to close at N7.50 per share.
On the other hand, C &I Leasing led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping by 9.85 per cent to close at N5.95 per share.
Jaiz Bank followed with a loss of 8.70 per cent to close at 63k, while Livestock Feeds dipped 7.27 per cent to close at 51k per share.
Afromedia dropped 5.56 per cent to close at 34k, while Dangote Sugar Refinery shed 4.83 per cent to close at N13.80 per share.
However, the total volume of shares traded closed higher with an exchange of 303.82 million shares worth N1.72 billion traded in 3,151 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 189.86 million shares valued at N1.48 billion exchanged in 3,410 deals on Wednesday.
Law Union & Rock Insurance topped the activity chart with 151.70 million shares worth N91.32 million.
United Bank for Africa accounted for 20.36 million shares valued at N142.61 million, while Access Bank traded 12.37 million shares worth N111.67 million.
Mutual Benefits Assurance traded 11.09 million shares valued at N2.23 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 10.37 million shares worth N193.13 million.
