Nigerian equities broke a three-day consecutive downtrend yesterday as Nigeria’s most capitalised quoted company-Dangote Cement, rallied the market to a net capital gain of N73 billion. While there were still widespread selling sentiments with nearly two losers for every gainer, gains by large-cap stocks nudged the overall market position to a positive close.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) improved to N12.517 trillion as against its opening value of N12.444 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the main index for the equities market, also increased from its opening index of 36,102.38 points to close at 36,316.58 points, representing average day-on-day return of 0.59 per cent. The average year-to-date return improved to 35.13 points.

Most sectoral indices closed positive, underlining the influence of the large-cap sectoral leaders. The NSE Industrial Goods Index rose by 0.9 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 0.3 per cent while the NSE Banking Index inched up by 0.1 per cent. On the downside, the NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 1.2 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by 0.4 per cent.

Dangote Cement led the 15-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N5.80 to close at N219.80. Flour Mills of Nigeria-Nigeria’s biggest flour miller, followed with a gain of N1.36 to close at N28.89. Total Nigeria rose by N1.11 to close at N228.11. Zenith Bank appreciated by 51 kobo to close at N23.01 while Dangote Sugar Refinery and Nascon Allied Industries chalked up 20 kobo each to close at N13 and N12.20 respectively.

Total turnover stood at 225.14 million shares valued at N5.48 billion in 5,110 deals. Custodian and Allied was the most active stock with 30.3 million shares worth N115.07 million. Zenith Bank followed with 25.97 million shares worth N597.39 million while Guaranty Trust Bank ranked third with 24.72 million shares valued at N924.82 million.

Market analysts at Afrinvest Securities said they expected the market to trade in similar positive trend on Friday.

On the downside, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the 28-stock losers’ list with a loss of N11.84 to close at N225.06. Nestle Nigeria dropped by n10 to close at N1,210. Guinness Nigeria declined by N2.96 to close at N85. Nigerian Breweries dropped by N1 to close at N184 while Lafarge Africa dipped by 50 kobo to close at N58.50 per share.