Nigerian stocks climbed for the fifth straight session on Thursday, this time by as little as 0.01 per cent, aided by modest gains recorded by PZ Cussons, UACN and UBA, with liquidity easing by 5 per cent.
Also backing gains, the oil and gas index was up 0.21 per cent to close at 265.65 points, the only riser of the five sectorial indices tracked by the exchange.
A positive market breadth was recorded as 17 gainers emerged against 15 losers. The rest 69 equities that partook in Thursday’s trading saw no movement.
The benchmark index closed at 39,131.80 points, 3.46 points stronger than what was reported for the previous trading session. Market capitalisation advanced to N20.479 trillion.
Year to date, Nigerian stocks are down by 2.83 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS
Cutix led advancers, growing by 7 per cent to close at N2.14. PZ gained 6.93 per cent to close at N5.40. Linkage Assurance rose by 5 per cent to N0.84. UACN Property leapt to N0.24, notching up 4.35 per cent in the process. Oando completed the top five, climbing up by 3.96 per cent to N3.15. TOP FIVE LOSERS
Ekocorp topped the losers’ table today, declining by 5.40 per cent to close at N10. Sunu Assurance shrank by 9.09 per cent to end the day at N0.60.
Honeywell Flour tumbled to N1.30, losing 8.45 per cent. Sovereign Trust Insurance dipped to N0.23, recording 8 per cent loss. Unity Bank closed at N0.55, going down by 6.78 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES
A total of 228.112 million shares worth N2.636 billion were traded in 3,656 deals.
GTB was the most preferred stock with 37.290 million units of its shares worth N1.162 billion traded in 517 deals.
Zenith Bank traded 28.750 million shares priced at N635.259 million in 375 transactions. FBN Holdings had 22.313 million units of its shares valued at N164.877 million exchange hands in 161 deals.Fidelity Bank traded 17.546 million shares estimated at N39.040 million in 149 transactions. UBA traded 15.053 million shares valued at N109.630 million in 176 deals.