Nigerian stocks closed trading on positive note, records 2.47% gain week-on-week

Nigerian stocks closed trading on a positive note Friday as the bourse’s all-share index rose marginally by 0.04 percent to close at 33,261.66 basis points against 0.80 percent appreciation recorded Thursday.

Friday’s performance thus capped a week of rally with 2.47% gain week-on-week as year-to-date (YTD) returns stood at 23.77 percent, the highest so far in sub-Saharan Africa.

Market capitalization at the close of trading was N11.5 trillion as volume of traded shares stood at 311.61 million units in about 3,000 deals.

Market breadth, a measure of investor sentiment, closed positive as Unity Bank led 24 gainers as against 15 losers led by OANDO, an improved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Equally, market turnover closed positive as volume moved up by 7.88 percent as against 6.65 percent uptick recorded in the previous session.

UBA, Diamond Bank and FBN Holdings were the most active to boost market turnover, while UBA and Dangote Cement topped the market value list.

On the other hand, BETA Glass led the list of active stocks that recorded impressive volume spike at the end of today’s session.

Indeed, analysts had predicted the outcome of Friday’s trading to be upbeat in expectation of half-year earnings scorecards.

“We expect performance in the equities market to remain upbeat as investors take positions in stocks with positive forward earnings expectation. Nevertheless, we do not eliminate the possibility of some ‘end of the week’ profit taking in tomorrow’s trading session following the positive streak,” analysts at Afrinvest said Thursday.

But some other analysts see the marginal gain at Friday’s trading as pointer to the market slowing down next week with profit taking dictating early trading sessions.