Lagos: The Nigerian equities market sustained its bullish momentum on Thursday, adding ₦1.698 trillion to investor wealth as strong earnings, attractive dividend prospects, and fresh inflows from pension funds fueled a rally across major stocks.
The positive performance was primarily driven by investor interest in leading equities such as Okomu Oil and Fortis Global Insurance, which recorded notable gains, as well as Deep Capital Management, Infinity Trust, Zichis Agro Allied Industries, and 47 other equities.
Furthermore, robust earnings releases and attractive dividend prospects from stocks worth over one trillion dollars have continued to bolster investor sentiment.
Heightened activity by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) channelled substantial new funds into large-cap stocks, further strengthening market momentum.
Market capitalisation rose from N122.236 trillion at opening to N123.934 trillion at close, reflecting an increase of 1.39 per cent or N1.698 trillion.
The All-Share Index also advanced by 1.39 per cent, or 2,645.61 points, rising from 190,427.96 to 193,073.57.
Year-to-date return reached 24.09 per cent, as market breadth closed positive with 52 gainers and 26 losers.
Okomu Oil, Deap Capital Management, and Fortis Global Insurance led the gainers’ chart, each rising 10 per cent to close at N1,459.70, N6.93, and 55k per share, respectively, highlighting strong upward movement for these stocks.
Zichis Agro Allied Industries and Infinity Trust both grew by 9.96 per cent, settling at N14.35 and N15.79 per share.
Conversely, Multiverse Mining, Mc Nicholas, Tripple Gee, and Secure Electronic Technology led the losers’ chart, each declining 10 per cent, closing at N25.20, N8.28, N5.40, and N1.80 per share, respectively. This reflects a notable drop in their respective stock values for the period.
Meyer shed 9.80 per cent, ending at N20.70 per share.
A total of 898.5 million shares, valued at N38.5 billion, were traded in 61,953 transactions.
This compares with 3.7 billion shares valued at N61.9 billion traded across 68,693 deals recorded earlier on Wednesday.
This revealed drops of 76% in volume, 38% in value, and 10% in deals.
Japaul Gold had the highest volume, with 80.12 million shares traded, accounting for 9.17 per cent of the day’s total.
GTCO recorded the highest value at N6.20 billion, accounting for 16.51 per cent of the day’s traded value.
