Lagos: The Nigerian stock market extended its bullish momentum on Friday, the first trading day of the year, with investors recording a ₦561 billion gain driven by sustained buying interest in major equities.
Strong performances from FTN Cocoa Processors, ABC Transport, Mutual Benefits Assurance, Deep Capital Management, Aluminium Extrusion Industries, and 48 other stocks lifted the market.
Market capitalisation, which opened at ₦99.376 trillion, added ₦561 billion or 0.57 per cent to close at ₦99.937 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 0.57 per cent or 879.33 points, ending the session at 156,492.36 compared with 155,613.03 recorded on Wednesday.
The Federal Government declared Thursday a public holiday to mark the New Year.
Market breadth closed positive with 53 gainers against 10 losers. FTN Cocoa Processors, ABC Transport, Mutual Benefits Assurance, and Deep Capital Management led the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent each, finishing at ₦5.50, ₦4.51, ₦3.41, and ₦2.09 per share, respectively. Aluminium Extrusion Industries advanced by 9.93 per cent to close at ₦23.80 per share.
On the flip side, Abbey Mortgage Bank topped the losers’ chart with a 6.25 per cent decline to ₦6.00. First City Monument Bank fell by 4.56 per cent to ₦11.50, while Seplat Energy shed 3.43 per cent to close at ₦5,610 per share. Guinea Insurance dropped 2.26 per cent to ₦1.30, and Universal Insurance dipped 1.65 per cent to ₦1.19 per share.
Analysis of market activity showed growth in the number of deals but a decline in both value and volume compared with the previous session.
A total of 439.9 million shares worth ₦24.9 billion were exchanged in 40,245 transactions, against 1.23 billion shares valued at ₦35.13 billion traded across 27,884 deals on Wednesday.Meanwhile, Chams led the activity chart in volume with 120.3 million shares worth ₦455.09 million. Linkage Assurance followed with 21.2 million shares valued at ₦38.3 million, while Lasaco Assurance traded 19.5 million shares worth ₦48.6 million. Aradel Holdings exchanged 15.6 million shares valued at ₦10.74 billion, and Access Corporation transacted 14.3 million shares worth ₦317.3 million.
