The Nigerian equities market ended trading for the year on Tuesday on a bullish posture with the All-Share Index appreciating further by 0.87 per cent.
The index rose by 232.73 points or 0.87 per cent to close at 26,842.07 against 26,609.34 posted on Monday.
Consequently, the nation’s bourse year-to-date loss stood at 14.6 per cent.
Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.846 trillion inched N112 billion to close at N12.958 trillion.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Seplat, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Lafarge Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank and Okomu Oil.
Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd said:“We believe the positive performance was partly driven by portfolio rebalancing activities by asset and portfolio managers.
“In the coming year, we expect the local bourse to resume trading on a weak note as investors remain averse to the equities market.
“However, in the near term, we anticipate that the impact of the low-yield environment in the fixed income space due to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on Open Market Operations (OMO) could drive buying interest in undervalued stocks.”
