The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ended the trading week on a strong note on Friday, with investors recording gains of N1.105 trillion as market capitalisation crossed the N110 trillion mark.

Market capitalisation rose by 1.01 per cent, increasing from N109.129 trillion to N110.234 trillion at the close of trading.
Similarly, the All-Share Index advanced by 1,722.13 points, or 1.01 per cent, to settle at 171,727.49, compared to 170,005.36 recorded in the previous session. This performance pushed the year-to-date return to 10.36 per cent.

The upbeat market sentiment was driven by strong demand for stocks such as Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, Deap Capital Management, Omatek Ventures, Zichis Agro Allied Industries, Austinlaz, and 55 other equities.

As a result, market breadth closed positive with 60 gainers against 19 losers.

Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, Deap Capital Management and Omatek Ventures topped the gainers’ chart, each appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N136.40, N6.82 and N2.64 per share, respectively.

On the losing side, The Initiates led the decliners with a 9.74 per cent drop to N19.45, followed by Daar Communications, which fell by 7.32 per cent to N1.90. United Capital also declined by 6.55 per cent to close at N18.55 per share.

Trading activity improved significantly as investors exchanged 953.8 million shares valued at N43.1 billion in 51,005 deals, compared to 712.9 million shares worth N22.3 billion traded in 46,104 deals previously.

This represented a 34 per cent increase in volume, a 94 per cent rise in turnover, and an 11 per cent growth in the number of deals.

Fidelity Bank recorded the highest trading volume with 92.39 million shares, accounting for 9.69 per cent of total volume traded.

Presco emerged as the most traded stock by value, with transactions worth N11.27 billion, representing 26.15 per cent of the day’s total value.