TheCable

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained a bullish momentum as investors gained N25.2 billion and market capitalisation increased by N13 trillion.

At the close of trade, the all-share index (ASI) rose 19 basis points (bps) to close at 24,930.34 points, compared to Tuesday which closed at 24,882.04 points.

However, year-to-date (YTD) eased to -7.1 percent while month-to-date (MTD) rose by 1.0 percent.

Activity level declined as volume and value traded fell by 54.7 percent and 45.2 percent to 173.7 million units and N2.1bn, respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were FBN Holdings (29.8 million units), Guaranty Trust Bank (13.2 million units) and Custodian Investment (12.8 million units).

MTN Nigeria (N636.6 million), Guaranty Trust Bank (N312.6 million) and Stanbic IBTC (N158.7 million) were the top traded stocks by value.

Performance across the top five NSE stocks was bullish as 3 of 5 indices maintained a positive trend.

The oil & gas index advanced 4.4 percent due to buying interest in Seplat Petroleum (9.0 percent) and Eterna Plc (4.4 percent).

Similarly, the banking and consumer goods indices rose by 0.14 percent and 0.09 percent respectively due to price appreciation in Stanbic IBTC (4.8 percent), Zenith (1.2 percent), Guinness (3.9 percent) and Nascon Allied Industries Plc (4.2 percent).

Conversely, the industrial goods index led laggards, down 0.7 percent due to a price decline in BUA Cement (-1.7 percent), while losses in Linkage Assurance (-5.0 percent) and Nem Insurance (-1.6 percent) dragged the insurance index 2 bps lower.

Market breadth strengthened as 20 stocks advanced against the 10 decliners.

The top gainers were Seplat Petroleum, Fidson Healthcare, and Stanbic IBTC, while Union Bank, Learn Africa, and Linkage Assurance lost the most.