Activities on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday witnessed a bullish rally after days of bearish trend following an upswing in value of most blue chip stocks that led to the appreciation of both market indices by 0.3 per cent.
It would be recalled that the value of the market indices, Monday dropped by 1.4 per cent.
Market watchers attributed the positive rally in the day to the excitement on the part of investors to leverage on the low prices of shares of some penny stocks with good fundamentals.
They believe taking position on those shares would be of immense benefit to investors as most of the stocks stand a good chance to out-perform in the nearest future.
Consequently, the market capitalisation increased by N20 billion or 0.3 per cent to close at N6,656 trillion while the All- Share Index equally appreciated by 0.3 per cent or 64.24 basis points to close at 20,875.32 index points.
Further analysis of the day’s trading showed that 23 stocks recorded price appreciation as against 21 others that dropped in value.
Longman Plc led the percentage gainers’ table with a gain of 4.99 per cent to close at N4.84. Roads Plc followed with a gain of 4.96 per cent to close at N4.02 while Vitafoam appreciated by 4.91 per cent to close at N5.98.
On the other hand, HIS Plc, May and Baker and Nigerian German led the losers’ ‘table with a loss of five, 4.99, and 4.94 per cent each to close at N2.66, N3.43 and N14.31 and N10.01 respectively.
The banking sub-sector buoyed by the activities on the shares of Zenith Bank and Access Bank led in volume terms with a turnover of 114.8 million shares valued at N872.2 million in 2,284 deals.
Information and Communications sub-sector fuelled by activities in the shares of IHS followed with a turnover of 21.5 million shares worth N55 million in 16 deals.
Insurance sub-sector recorded a turnover of 12.6 million shares worth N10 million swapped in 100 deals ranked third.
In all, investors staked a turnover of 196 million shares valued at N1.5 billion in 4,048 deals.