By RUKAYAT ADEYEMI

Recovering from its previous session?s loss, the equity market opened the week bullish, as investors gained N138 billion.

Gains in MTN Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank, Access Corporation, FBN Holdings, Fidelity Bank, Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC, among other advanced equities, pulled the market up.

Specifically, the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market capitalisation added N138 billion or 0.22 per cent to an opening of N61.303 trillion, to close at N61.441 trillion.

The All-Share Index also rose by 0.22 per cent or 227.1 points to close at 101,356.15, against 101,129.09 recorded on Friday.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose to 35.55 per cent.

Market breadth closed positive with 58 gainers and 20 losers on the floor of the exchange.

On the gainers? chart, Champion Breweries, International Breweries, Axa Mansard, MRS and Okomu Oil led by 10 per cent each, to close at N4.18, N5.50, N8.25, N198 and N403.70 per share, respectively.

Conversely, Austin Laz led the losers? chart by 9.84 per cent to close at N1.65, Aradel Holdings trailed by 9.64 per cent to close at N600 per share.

Oando lost 8.63 per cent to close at N63.50, Veritas Kapital shed 4.44 per cent to close at N1.29 and Omatek declined by 4.41 per cent to close at 65k per share.

However, trade turnover settled lower, relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 1.31 per cent.

A total of 503.19 million shares valued at N16.27 billion were exchanged in 12,490 deals, compared to 515.56 million shares valued at N16.49 billion traded in 11,554 deals transacted in the previous session.

Meanwhile, GTCO led the activity chart in volume with 39.38 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N3.71 billion.

In its prediction for the week, Analysts at Cowry Asset Management Ltd., said the equities market is expected to maintain its bullish momentum, supported by year-end window-dressing activities by fund managers.

The analysts said market participants would also closely monitor the impact of the recently published Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on their portfolios and market strategies.

According to them, the optimism surrounding improved macroeconomic indicators and ongoing portfolio rebalancing efforts is likely to sustain market activity.

?As the year draws to a close, strategic positioning is anticipated to guide trading decisions, promising an eventful conclusion to a record breaking year for the local bourse,? the analysts said. (NAN)

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