Investor interest in key stocks such as Dangote Cement, FBNHoldings, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, GTCO, and Fidelity Bank, alongside other advancing equities, contributed to the market’s positive performance.

The market capitalisation increased by N53 billion, or 0.09 per cent rising from N62.257 trillion at the opening to N62.310 trillion at the close.

Similarly, the All-Share Index, ASI, advanced by 0.09 per cent, gaining 87.11 points to close at 102,183.06, compared to 102,095.95 reported on Wednesday.

This performance brought the Year-To-Date, YTD, return to 0.72 per cent.

However, in spite the gains, the market breadth closed negative, with 35 gainers against 26 losers.

On the losers’ chart, Livestock Feeds led by 60k to close at N5.40, Eunisell trailed by N1.73 to close at N15.63 per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceutical and Regal Insurance lost 7k each to close at N3.12 and 68k per share respectively, while Honeywell Flour shed 94k to close at N9.21 per share.

Conversely, North Nigerian Flour Mill led the gainers table by N4.95 to close at N54.45, Dangote Sugar followed by N3.65 to close at N40.50 per share.

John Holt gained 83k to close at N9.30, The Initiate Plc added 25k to close at N2.80 and Omatek went up by 8k to close at 90k per share.

Trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 76.82 per cent.

A total of 472.16 million shares valued at N16.70 billion were exchanged in 12,336 deals, compared with 435.54 million shares valued at N9.44 billion traded in 12,098 deals, posted in the previous session.

Meanwhile, GTCO led the activity chart in volume and value with 65.05 million shares worth N3.77 billion.

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The equity market had lost N469bn in three days on the back of sell-offs.

The All-Share Index climbed by 0.13 per cent to 104,387.47 points, while market capitalisation rose to N59.02tn, improving the bourse’s year-to-date return to 39.6 per cent.

However market activity surged, as volume rose by 12.78 per cent to 336.82 billion units and the value of transactions appreciated by 35.74 per cent to N9.29bn, while total deals were up by 6.57 per cent to 8,790.

The exchange recorded more losers (29) than gainers (22), though stocks like Juli Plc, Transcorp, International Energy Insurance, ETranzact, and Guinea Insurance appreciated by 10.00 per cent, 9.96 per cent, 9.66 per cent, 9.65 per cent, and 8.33 per cent, respectively, driven by increased buying interest.

Conversely, top decliners were DeapCap, Tourist, Computer Warehouse Group, Caverton and Omatek, which dipped 10 per cent, 9.86 per cent, 9.09 per cent, 8.57 per cent, and 8.05 per cent, respectively.

The banking, insurance, and industrial goods indices rose by 0.9 per cent, 0.57 per cent, and 0.42 per cent, respectively, while the consumer goods sector declined by 0.09 per cent and the oil/gas sector was flat.

United Bank for Africa was the most traded security by volume, with 63.88 million units transacted in 773 deals, while Nestle led in traded value, totalling N1.82bn.

Meanwhile, PZ Cussons was flat at N40, though the volume of traded shares increased to 29,407 on Thursday from 1,400 on Wednesday.

This comes after the firm announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission had declined to grant a No-Objection for it to buy out minority shareholders at N23.

The All-Share Index and market capitalization shed 3.44 percent week-on-week to 102,088.30 points and N55.86tn, respectively, on the back of weak sentiment, which was spurred by higher yields outlook in the fixed-income market.

The equity market has also witnessed portfolio rebalancing ahead of expected corporate earnings and the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

A look at the sectoral balance indicated that the insurance and industrial goods sectors were the least-performing indexes as they pared the previous week’s gains by 8.91 percent and 7.94 percent, trailing the banking index which closed the week in a weak region by 2.10 percent due to a sell-off in some bellwether banking stocks.

However, the Consumer goods (2.01 percent) and the Oil & Gas sectors (0.01 percent) experienced an upswing as investors showed further interest across those indices.

Trading activities throughout the week were also characterized by waning sentiments as a total turnover of 1.377 billion shares worth N31.58bn was traded in 42,040 deals, lower than 1.559 billion shares valued at N36.50bn that exchanged hands in 42,546 deals in the previous week.

In terms of Measurement by volume, the financial services industry led the activity chart with 960.519 million shares valued at N16.84bn traded in 19,669 deals, contributing 69.77 percent and 53.33 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

The conglomerate industry followed with 115.241 million shares worth N1.51bn in 2,859 deals, whilst the third place was the oil and gas industry, with a turnover of 80.866 million shares worth N1.72bn in 2,726 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, FBNHoldings Plc, and Transnational Corporation Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 343.584 million shares worth N9.43bn in 5,659 deals, contributing 24.96 percent and 29.86 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

Recall that last week, 14 equities appreciated; lower than 35 equities in the prior week, and 66 equities dipped; higher than 51 in the previous week, 74 equities remained unchanged, higher than 68 recorded in the previous week.

At the close of the week, Juli Plc, FBN Holdings, Geregu Power, and BUA Foods were investors’ toasts amid the cherry-picking activities as their share prices advanced by 59.18 percent, 10.71 percent, 9.32 percent, and 6.27 percent, respectively.

The laggards for the week were Morison Industries Plc, which lost 32.66 percent to close at N1.67; Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Plc lost 19.35 percent to close at N1.25 and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc lost 18.69 percent to close at N4.35.