After days of sustained bearish trading, the Nigerian exchange recorded a 0.05 per cent increase in the All-Share Index as investors gained N26bn.
The local bourse has been on a bearish run for days, which has seen the major indexes fall below milestones surpassed earlier in the year, due to sell-offs and waning interests.
The release of corporate earnings and the announced fresh banking sector recapitalisation exercise have not reignited interest in the market.
At the close of Thursday’s trading, the All-Share index inched up by 48 basis points to settle at 98,169.30 points.
Similarly, the market capitalisation appreciated by 0.05 per cent to reach N55.52tn.
The market movers were the stocks of Zenith Bank Plc, Access Holdings and Transcorp.
Contributors to today’s gains included Transcorp Hotels, Livestock, Tantalizer Plc, Sunu Assurance and WAPIC, which posted share price increases of 9.75 per cent, 9.42 per cent, 9.38 per cent, 7.44 per cent, and 6.15 per cent, respectively.
However, despite the overall uptrend, the exchange recorded more losers (24) than gainers (16), reflecting subdued trading activity.
Total deals, volume, and value all experienced declines, down by 6.20 per cent, 24.90 per cent, and 31.95 per cent, totalling 7,417 trades, 297.20 million units, and N6.52 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed, with the banking and consumer goods indexes declining by 1.10 per cent and 0.05 per cent, while the Insurance index gained 0.88 per cent.
The oil and gas and industrial goods indexes remained unchanged.
Zenith Bank emerged as the most traded security by volume and value, with 48.49 million units valued at N1.77bn exchanged in 577 deals.
