Positive trading returned to the stock market on Thursday, resulting in a gain of N902 billion.
The PUNCH reported that this followed two sessions of bearish trading due to profit-taking.
Following the Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain interest rates, stocks on the NASDAQ, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and S&P 500 saw a similar trajectory on Wednesday, marking their worst day of 2024.
The market capitalization and All-Share Index of the local exchange increased by 1.63 per cent to close at N56.26 trillion and 102,802.25 points, respectively.
The market’s year-to-date return increased to 37.48 per cent.
Positive market sentiment resulted in 53 winners and 19 losers. The top toasts from investors were from Caverton (10%), Chams (10%), Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (10%), VeristasKap, and Nascon Allied Industries (9.98%).
Conversely, repricing was downward for DEAPCAP (-9.88%), Computer Warehouse Group (-9.87%), and RT BRISCOE (-9.86%).
The five sub-sector indices tracked closed in the green zone, indicating broad-based advances in the performance across the sectors.
The buy interest in the leading banks, including Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, UBA, GTCO, and Fidelity, propelled the banking industry to lead the gainers with a 7.82 per cent increase.
The consumer goods industry increased significantly as well, at 4.37 percent, especially driven by Dangote Sugar, Honeywell Flour Mill Cadburt and BUA Foods
The Industrial, Oil/Gas, and Insurance indices had increases of 2.18 per cent, 0.02 percent, and 0.35 per cent, in that order.
In the meantime, there were 12,851 trades and N12.16 billion in value, down 10.6% and 45.96%, respectively.
At 861.01 million units, the total traded volume for the day grew by 14.93 per cent.
Zenith Bank led in traded value at N2.76bn, but Universal Insurance was the most traded securities in terms of volume at the close of the trading session, with 113.76 million units changing hands in 110 trades.
