Blue-chip stocks spur Nigerian equity market to second consecutive gains

The Nigerian equity market extended its rally to the second consecutive trading day on Thursday, driven by gains by bellwether stocks like MTNN, Airtel Africa, Zenith Bank and 14 others.
The All-Share Index (ASI) was higher by 199.80 absolute points, growing 0.83 per cent to close at 24,330.06 points, while investors gained ₦12.6 billion as market capitalisation advanced to ₦12.7 trillion and the market loss for this year moderated to -9.4 per cent.
Ikeja Hotel gained 9.8 per cent to emerge top of the 17 advancers as NAHCO shed 9.17 per cent to lead 15 other losers.
The Nigeria bourse today (Thursday) closed on a positive note, gaining 0.83% to extend the previous day positive sentiment to two consecutive trading days, following value appreciation on some blue-chip stocks like MTNN, AIRTELAFRI, ZENITHBANK and 14 other. Consequently, the market breadth closed on a positive note, recording 17 gainers as against 16 losers.
The top traded stocks by volume were Sterling Bank (60.1m units), FBNH (20.7m units) and Japaul Oil (17.3m units), while Airtel Africa (₦104.7m), FBNH (₦103.4m) and GTbank(₦85.3m) were the most active in value terms.
The AFR-ICT (+2.5%) and Banking (+1.0%) indices gained the most, due to buying interest in MTNN (+2.6%), Airtel Africa (+2.4%) and GTBank (+2.3%). Similarly, price appreciation in WAPIC (+0.9%) and Prestige (+0.8%) drove gains in the Insurance index (+0.1%).
On the flip side, the Consumer Goods (-0.5%) and Oil & Gas (-0.3%) indices depreciated, due to sell-offs in UNILEVER (-5.9%), FLOURMILL (-5.0%) and OANDO (-3.0%).