Stocks maintain upward drift as Zenith, GTbank dominate trading

The market maintained its upward drift for the second day running, thanks to gains in a couple of large-cap stocks including Zenith Bank, GTbank, Nestle, Dangote Cement and several others.

Investors’ passion for bank stocks are showing no signs of waning as bank stocks led trade on Thursday with Zenith, GTB and FBN Holdings accounting for well over one third of the entire trade volume.

A positive market breadth was posted with 18 gainers emerging against 9 losers. The All Share Index inched up by 0.77% to 23,892.92 basis points while market capitalisation rose to N12.441 trillion. Year to date, the index is down by 10.99%.

Fidson led the gainers’ chart today, appreciating by 9.62% to close at N2.62. NPF Microfinance Bank went up by 9.46% to N1.62. May and Baker rose to N3.11, notching up 5.78% in the process. FCMB added 5.26% to end today’s trade at N1.80. Regal Insurance completed the top 5, climbing by 0.21% to N5.

Custodian was the worst-performing stock today, declining by 9.52% to close at N5.70. Unity Bank shed 8.33% to close at N0.44. Aiico fell to N0.86, losing 7.53%. NEM slumped to N2, recording 7.41% depreciation. Linkage Assurance closed at N0.41, going down by 6.82%.

182.740 million Shares estimated at N2.329 billion were traded today in 4,542 deals. Zenith was the most active today with 27.280 million units of its stocks worth N413.342 million traded in 401 deals. 24.616 million Units of GTB shares priced at N540.710 million exchanged hands in 247 transactions.

FBN Holdings had 18.842 million shares valued at N92.815 million traded in 309 deals. Custodian traded 15.219 million shares estimated at N95.396 million in 49 transactions. Fidson traded 11.409 million shares valued at N27.235 million in 83 deals