Lagos: The Nigerian equities market maintained its upward trajectory on Monday, with investors boosting their portfolios by ₦257 billion.
Market capitalisation rose from ₦96.936 trillion to ₦97.193 trillion, reflecting a 0.26% gain. The All-Share Index also advanced by 401.69 points to close at 152,459.07, compared with 152,057.38 recorded on Friday.
The continued uptick was driven by increased interest in stocks such as Aluminium Extrusion Industries, International Energy Insurance, Mecure, Royal Exchange, Austinlaz, and 29 others.
As a result, while the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 48.12 per cent, the market breadth also closed positive with 34 gainers and 20 losers.
Aluminium Extrusion Industries led the advancers’ table by 9.72 per cent, closing at N13.55, International Energy Insurance trailed by 9.69 per cent, ending the session at N2.49, while Mecure Industries gained by 9.64 per cent, settling at N60.30 per share.
Also, Royal Exchange grew by 9.60 per cent, finishing at N1.94, and Austinlaz rose by 9.50 per cent, closing at N2.65 per share.
Conversely, Custodian Investment and ABC Transport led the decliners’ table by 10 per cent each, settling at N35.10 and N3.15 per share respectively.
Similarly, Prestige Assurance dropped by 7.41 per cent, finishing at N1.50, Guinea Insurance shed by 7.38 per cent, closing at N1.13, while Ellah Lakes fell by 6.45 per cent, ending the session at N13.05 per share.
Analysis of market activity showed a decline in market value and volume, with growth in deals: 451.5 million shares worth N13.03 billion were traded across 33,327 deals.
This is in contrast to 1.5 billion shares worth N21.8 billion traded in 25,669 transactions earlier on Friday.
Meanwhile, Tantalizer recorded the highest volume with 50.18 million shares traded, while Aradel recorded the highest value at N1.51 billion.
