The Nigerian stock market swung back into positive territory on Thursday, delivering a ₦279 billion boost to investors following four straight sessions of losses.
Driven by bargain-hunting and renewed appetite for equities, the NGX All-Share Index rose by 0.31% or 432.94 points to close at 141,149.04, up from 140,716.10 the previous day. Market capitalization equally advanced from ₦89.063 trillion to ₦89.342 trillion.
Market breadth was upbeat, with 34 gainers outperforming 22 decliners. Mecure Industries led the advancers with a 9.89% gain, closing at ₦26.10, followed by Oando (+9.50%), McNicholas (+9.31%), CHAMS (+9.24%), and Legend Internet (+9.18%).
Conversely, Eterna topped the losers’ chart, shedding 10% to finish at ₦27.90. Sovereign Trust Insurance, The Initiates, Caverton Offshore, and Fidson also recorded declines.
Trading activity was heightened, as investors exchanged 5.5 billion shares worth ₦419.7 billion across 20,399 deals. This was a sharp increase from Wednesday’s 442.6 million shares valued at ₦16.9 billion in 21,684 deals. Aradel Holdings led both in volume and value, trading 693.3 million shares worth ₦388.2 billion.
Sectoral performance was largely bullish, with the Banking Index (+1.02%) leading the advance on the back of GTCO (+1.98%) and STANBIC (+3.09%). The Oil & Gas Index (+0.74%) also gained, supported by Oando’s surge, while the Consumer Goods Index (+0.31%) inched higher on DANGSUGAR’s rise. The Insurance Index (-0.41%) bucked the trend, pressured by losses in AIICO.
