Experts say the long-delayed signing of the appropriation bill by the president had stalled activities at the bourse, with last week alone recording major losses by stocks.
Trading in the treasury bills market also closed the week on an upbeat note as demand persisted across most maturities (supported by the healthy system liquidity) – yields moderated 17bps on average.
The stock market closed positive at week close with most key sectors recording gains. Specifically, the Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation rose to N8.84tn from N8.793tn in 24 hours.
A total of 181.108 million shares worth N1.166bn were traded in 3,710 deals.
In all, 31 stocks appeared on the gainers’ chart while 11 did otherwise. As of Thursday, the share prices of 24 firms appeared on the losers’ chart and 25 on the gainers’ chart.
The NSE All-Share Index also rose to 25,701.60 basis points from 25,563.78 recorded on Thursday.
The oil and gas sector (+433bps) led advances, bolstered by the continued recovery in Forte Oil Plc (+10.25 per cent) and gains in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc (+493bps).
Similarly, the financial services (+85bps) and consumer goods (+16bps) sectors closed higher, following price appreciations in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (+210bps), Zenith Bank Plc (+115bps) and Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc (+902bps), Guinness Nigeria Plc (+106bps) respectively. The industrial goods sector closed flat.
FBN Holdings Plc topped the volume chart for the third consecutive session, trading 30 million units while Nigerian Breweries topped the value chart for the second consecutive session, trading 1.9 million units worth N222m.
The NSE ASI and NSE 30 gained 54bps and 69bps, putting year-to-date returns at -10.27 per cent and -12.42 per cent respectively.
Following a mild improvement in liquidity to N380bn (previous: N370bn), interbank placement rates moderated marginally with the call rate down 9bps to 4.08 per cent.
At the foreign exchange interbank market, the naira closed unchanged at 199.05/dollar, retracing from an intraday high of 197.50/dollar.
