Equity market sustains rally with N131bn gain

The equity market continued with its bullish trend on Wednesday, as investors gained N131bn buoyed by appreciation in the shares of Cornerstone Insurance, RT Briscoe Nigeria, Industrial and Medical Gases and 26 other stocks.

This is the second day of bullish trading on the local bourse, driven by strong momentum in financial stocks.

At the close of trading, both the exchange’s market capitalisation and the All-Share Index rose by 0.23 per cent to settle at N56.74tn and 100,299.48 basis points, respectively.

Market sentiment was positive, reflected in 29 gainers and 19 losers.

The top gainers on the chart were Cornerstone Insurance, RT Briscoe Nigeria, and Industrial and Medical Gas, which saw a 9.57 per cent, 9.38 per cent and 9.34 per cent increase to close at N2.29, N0.70 and N13.00, respectively.

Losers leading the chart were University Press, which lost N2.25 per cent to close at N10, Daar Communications shed 5.88 per cent to close at N0.48 and Omatek Ventures dipped 5.80 per cent to close at N0.65 per unit.

Fidelity Bank, which is seeking to raise N127bn via a rights issue and public offer, recorded the highest traded volume with 137.64 million shares, followed by Universal Insurance with 21.23 million shares and AIICO Insurance with 14.92 million shares.

Sectoral performance was generally positive, except for the oil and gas sector, which remained muted.

The Insurance and Banking sectors experienced positive investor sentiment, recording gains of 2.67 per cent and 1.71 per cent, respectively. They were followed by the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods sectors, which saw mild gains of 0.03 per cent and 0.17 per cent due to positive price movements within the sectors.