The Nigerian stock market recorded a modest yet significant uptick on Thursday, rising by 0.35% and adding N310 billion to investors’ wealth. This positive momentum was fueled by renewed bargain hunting and growing investor confidence in select stocks including Chellaram, Austin Laz, The Initiate, Sovereign Trust Insurance, Aradel Holdings, among others.
Market capitalization opened the day at N89.555 trillion and closed at N89.865 trillion, reflecting this gain.
Meanwhile, the All-Share Index climbed by 489.45 points, closing at 142,036.23 compared to Tuesday’s 141,546.78.
Despite the overall gain, market breadth remained slightly negative with 32 stocks declining against 28 gainers.
Leading the declines was Guinea Insurance, which slipped by 9.70% to close at N1.49 per share. Other notable losers included Cornerstone Insurance (-8.68%, N6.52), Legend Internet (-7.27%, N5.10), Deap Capital Management (-7.06%, N1.58), and Thomas Wyatt Nigeria (-6.49%, N2.45).
On the upside, Chellaram led the gainers, surging by 9.77% to N14.60, closely followed by Austin Laz, which jumped 9.67% to N2.95. The Initiate rose 8.08% to N12.97, while Sovereign Trust Insurance and Aradel Holdings gained 7.37% and 6.97%, closing at N3.06 and N583 per share respectively.
Trade activity revealed a decline in the number of deals but an improvement in traded value and volume. About 1 million shares worth N24.7 billion were exchanged in 23,281 transactions, compared with 414.9 million shares valued at N12.95 billion traded across 25,386 deals on Tuesday.
Abbey Mortgage Bank topped the volume chart, moving 401.1 million shares valued at N2.7 billion. It was followed by Fidelity Bank with 254.8 million shares worth N5.3 billion, and United Bank for Africa (UBA), which traded 23.2 million shares valued at N1.1 billion.
Other active stocks included FirstHoldCo with 22.5 million shares worth N699.6 million, and Access Corporation, which transacted 17.5 million shares valued at N473.9 million.
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