The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited crawled back to the green territory on Thursday after it closed higher by 0.12 per cent.
In the preceding session, it was in red but yesterday, it ended bullish due to renewed bargain-hunting by investors amid a pocket of profit-taking in Nigerian stocks.
The commodity space lost 0.04 per cent, the industrial goods counter shed 0.02 per cent, and the energy index depreciated by 0.01 per cent.
However, the consumer goods industry improved by 0.08 per cent, the banking segment expanded by 0.07 per cent, and the insurance sector increased by 1.27 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 174.66 points to 143,239.23 points from 143,064.57 points and the market capitalisation jumped by N112 billion to N91.108 trillion from N90.996 trillion.
The duo of Linkage Assurance and Ikeja Hotel led the gainers’ group after chalking up 10.00 per cent each to end at N1.87 and N27.50 apiece, Learn Africa grew by 9.96 per cent to N5.74, NCR Nigeria advanced by 9.96 per cent to N54.65, and Union Dicon surged by 9.52 per cent to N6.90.
But Champion Breweries topped the losers’ chart after it lost 9.85 per cent to settle at N12.35, Sterling Holdings depreciated by 8.33 per cent to N7.15, UPDC shed 8.23 per cent to finish at N5.02, C&I Leasing crashed by 4.83 per cent to N5.32, and Guinea Insurance slumped by 4.35 per cent to N1.10.
On top of the activity log was Fidelity Bank with a turnover of 32.2 million shares worth N615.1 million, UBA transacted 29.2 million equities valued at N1.0 billion, GTCO exchanged 26.2 million stocks for N2.3 billion, Zenith Bank sold 24.6 million shares valued at N1.5 billion, and Access Holdings traded 14.4 million equities worth N302.0 million.
At the close of trades, investors bought and sold 324.6 million stocks valued at N13.1 billion in 18,328 deals versus the 738.4 million stocks worth N35.5 billion transacted in 19,919 deals on Wednesday, implying a decline in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 56.04 per cent, 63.10 per cent, and 7.99 per cent, respectively.