The nation’s equity market on Tuesday maintained a bullish trend for the eighth consecutive day with the indices appreciating by 1.28 per cent and the volume by 101.48 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation increased by N117 billion or 1.28 per cent to close at N9.249 trillion against N9.132 trillion on Monday.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 26,418.33 rose by 337.88 points or 1.28 per cent to close at 26,756.21 due to huge gains posted by some highly capitalised stocks.

A breakdown of the price movement chart indicated that Dangote Cement led the gainers’ table, gaining N2.50 to close at N162 per share.

Nigerian Breweries followed with a gain of N2 to close at N132 and Oando increased by 80k to close at N8.69 per share.

Okomuoil gained 72k to close at N48.52, while PZ Industries appreciated by 70k to close at N15.70 per share.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the growth to investors and traders renewed confidence to impressive earnings of first quarter of 2017 released by some companies.

Omordion stated that the current uptrend was the longest streak since the beginning of the year.

He added that investors were taking advantage of low valuation of equities to reposition and increase their stake in the market.

Omordion said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) new foreign exchange policy contributed to the market trend.

On the other hand, Total topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N6 to close at N249 per share.

7UP Bottling Company trailed with a loss of N1.89 to close at N102 and Lafarge Africa dipped N1.10 to close at N48.50 per share.

Dangote Sugar declined by 24k to close at N6.46, while Presco shed 10k to close at N46.90 per share.

NAN also reports that FCMB Group drove the activity chart, accounting for 243.86 million shares valued at N239.40 million.

Zenith International Bank followed with 52.29 million shares worth N856.16 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 42.53 million shares valued at N274.51 million.

Diamond Bank sold 33.94 million shares worth N29.02 million and FBN Holdings exchanged 22.81 million shares valued at N81.35 million.

In all, a total of 539.23 million shares worth N2.82 billion were transacted by investors in 4,519 deals, representing an increase of 101.48 per cent.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 267.64 million valued at N3.26 billion traded in 3,907 deals. (NAN)

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