By Taiye Olayemi

The Nigerian stock market closed on a bullish note on Wednesday, recording a gain of N5.554 trillion for investors at the end of the trading session.

The rally was driven by increased investor interest in high- and mid-cap stocks, including Airtel Africa, Zichis Agro Allied Industries, UAC of Nigeria, CAP, Jaiz Bank, and 45 others.

Market capitalisation rose from N147.174 trillion to N152.728 trillion, representing a 3.77 per cent increase.

Similarly, the All-Share Index gained 8,625.79 points, or 3.77 per cent, advancing from 228,579.80 to 237,205.59.

While the Year-to-Date return grew by 52.43 per cent, the market breadth closed positive with 50 gainers against 43 losers.

Airtel Africa, UAC of Nigeria, CAP and Zichis Agro Allied Industries led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent each, settling at N3,021.30, N165, N132 and N19.80 per share respectively.

Jaiz Bank soared by 9.99 per cent, ending the session at N8.81 per share.

On the flip side, Cadbury and John Holt led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, finishing at N66.15 and N12.60 per share respectively.

Also, E-Tranzact declined by 9.97 per cent, finishing at N15.80, Morison dipped by 9.92 per cent, settling at N10.62 while Haldane McCall shed by N9.74 per cent, closing at N3.43 per share.

A total of 1.33 billion shares valued at N69.09 billion were traded across 83,445 transactions, compared to 907.9 million shares worth N68.24 billion that was exchanged in 72,886 deals earlier on Tuesday.

This showed an overall growth in the market activity.

Access Corporation led the market in both volume and value, with 281.31 million shares traded worth N7.29 billion, representing 21.09 per cent and 10.55 per cent of the day’s total volume and value, respectively.

Commenting on the bullish session, Mr David Adonri, Vice President of Highcap Securities, said highly capitalised stocks largely dictated the market’s direction.

He explained that such stocks tend to influence overall market movement whenever they record significant price changes.

“Today, Airtel Africa rose by the maximum 10 per cent, and that gain alone was substantial enough to drive the market upward,” he said.

Adonri added that other large-cap stocks, including Aradel, also recorded appreciable gains, while some banking stocks that had declined in the previous session rebounded.

“Stocks like GTCO, Zenith Bank, WAPCO and UBA all posted recoveries,” he noted.

He further stated that while the highly capitalised stocks set the tone for the rally, they were strongly supported by mid-cap stocks, which collectively contributed to the market’s positive performance.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Olawunmi Ashafa