Stories by Chinenye Anuforo
The gaining streak of equities on the Lagos floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued Thursday for the third consecutive day as persistent buying interest kept the market soaring.
The All Share Index advanced 3.1 per cent to 31,071.25 points, propping up year-to-date return to 8.5 per cent.
A total of N324 billion was gained by investors as market capitalisation rose to N10.7 trillion.
Market performance was characterised by a general buying interest across board. However, the major movers of the market yesterday were Dangote Cement, GTBank and Nigerian Breweries. Nonetheless, activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 16.9 per cent and 28 per cent to 450.5 million units and N5.7 billion respectively.
All sectorial indices closed higher on bullish investor sentiments. The Consumer Goods index appreciated the most, as it went up by 3.3 per cent on the back of gains in NB and Nestle followed by the Industrial Goods index, which rose by 2.9 per cent on price appreciation in Dangote Cement.
Buy sentiment in the Banking sector persisted, especially in the Tier 1 bank GTBank and Zenith Bank driving the index 2.3 per cent northwards.
In the same vein, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices added points, appreciating 1.0 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.
After the trading session, 37 stocks appreciated against 12 declining stocks. On top of the gainer table were Glaxosmith, Champion Breweries and Transcorp while NPF Microfinance Bank, Cap Plc and Deap capital led the losers.
Analysts with Afrinvest opined that, “With three consecutive days of massive gains, there are an increased likelihood of some end of the week profit taking.”