The stock market recorded a positive performance as gains in Seplat (+10.0percent) and Airtel Africa (+9.2percent) drove the benchmark index up 104bps to settle at 24,141.48 points.
Consequently, investors gained ₦134.5 billion as market capitalisation advanced to ₦13.1 trillion while Year to date loss moderated to -8.5 percent.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 0.8percent to 204.9m units while value traded rose 54.8percent to ₦3.8bn. The top traded stocks by volume were Guaranty trust Bank (66.3m units), Access bank (24.0m units) and Zenith bank (15.2m units) while GTB (₦1.6bn), Okomu Oil (₦418.6m) and Airtel Africa (₦321.0m) led by value.
Performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under review gained. The Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices were the best performers, up 5.2percent and 4.2percent due to buying interest in Seplat (+10.0percent) and Airtel Africa (+9.8percent).
The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices trailed, gaining 0.6percent and 0.2percent respectively owing to upticks in AIICO (+0.1percent) and GUINNESS (+6.2percent).
Conversely, losses in Access (-0.2percent), Zenith (-0.1percent) and BUA Cement (-0.3percent) saw the Banking and Industrial Goods indices dragged by 0.4percent and 0.3percent respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth expanded to 1.6x from the 0.9x recorded previously as 18 stocks gained against the 11 decliners.
