The Transnational Corporation Plc, Industrial & Medical Gases Nigeria Plc and Okomu Oil were the top gainers on Thursday as the Nigerian Exchange Limited continued its upswing.
The market sustained a rally as investors gained N488bn with the market capitalisation up by 1.21 per cent to close at N40.652tn. Similarly, the All-Share Index appreciated by 891.31 points to 74,289.02.
The previous day, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Limited crossed N40tn for the first time on the back of increased interest in banking stocks.
While the value and volume of trade rose by 84.62 per cent and 34.88 per cent, respectively, on Wednesday; they rose even further on Thursday. The value and volume traded equities rose by 1.54 per cent and 37.19 per cent to N13.026bn and 760,929,521 units of shares respectively. The shares were exchanged in 7,990 deals.
Banking stocks and Transcorp were the major drivers of the market uptick. The banking stocks were AccessCorp, United Bank for Africa, GTCO and Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc.
Investors’ sentiments were positive resulting in 50 gainers compared to 19 losers.
Transcorp Plc and IMG led the gainers chart with a 10 per cent gain each to close at N8.47 and N9.35 per unit, respectively. Okomu Oil appreciated by 9.96 per cent to close at N263.90, Multiverse also gained 9.96 per cent to close at N12.70 and JapaulGold was up 9.87 per cent to close at N1.67 per unit.
On the flip side, John Holt led with a 10 per cent decline to close at N2.34; EllahLakes lost 9.94 per cent to close at N2.90, while Tripple G shed 9.66 per cent to close at N2.15.
Other top losers were Regency Assurance Plc, which dipped 8.11 per cent to close at N0.34 and UACN which lost 5.96 per cent to close at N15 per unit.
In terms of volume and value, drivers of the day’s market trend were led by Abbey Mortgage Bank, AccessCorp, Nestle, Geregu etc.
At the close of trading, investors exchanged 119 stocks.
