Banking lifts stocks by N109bn

Gains in Zenith Bank (+7.3 percent), Guaranty Trust Bank (+6.4 percent) and WAPCO (+2.7 percent) lifted performance in the stock exchange on Thursday as market capitalisation rose by N109.2 billion to close at N20.4 trillion.

Consequently, the benchmark index rose 54 basis points (bps) to 38,914.84 points while the year-to-date loss improved to -3.4 percent

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Trading activity advanced as volume and value surged 727.8 percent and 118.7 percent respectively to 1.5bn units and N5.9bn.

The most traded stocks by volume were Unitybnk (1.0bn units), Multiverse (200.2m units) and Guaranty (122.2m units) while Guaranty (N3.6bn), Zenith (N711.9m) and Unitybnk (N700.7m) led by value.

Performance was mixed across sector coverage as 3 indicators lost, 2 gained and the AFR-ICT index remained flat.

Also, 22 stocks gained against 13 decliners with the top gainers including Eterna (+10 percent), Lasaco (+8.3 percent) and Zenith (+7.3 percent); top decliners were WAPIC (-9.1 percent), Linkassure (-9.1 percent) and ABCTRANS (-6.7 percent).

Analysts expect a gain reversal in the last trading session of the week due to profit taking.