The nation’s bourse kicked off trading for the week on Monday on a bullish trend with a growth of N27 billion due to investors’ demand for consumer goods and insurance stocks.

Specifically, the market capitalisation inched higher by N27 billion or 0.12 per cent to close at N21.821 trillion from N21.794 trillion posted on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 41,763.26 increased by 51.48 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 41,814.74.

Accordingly, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns increased to 4.0 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively.

The market positive performance was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Airtel Africa, Total, Unilever, PZ Cussons and Guinness.

In this trading week, analysts at United Capital expected the third-quarter earnings season to pick up the pace.

“We remain upbeat about market performance and investor sentiment as we expect market participants to continue cherry-picking fundamentally sound stocks, while also positioning for full year, 2021 dividends,” they said.

Furthermore, the market breadth closed positive recording 28 gainers against 20 losers.

PZ Cussons dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms of 9.32 per cent to close at N6.45 per share.

Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with 7.14 per cent to close at 30k, while Unilever went up by 6.90 per cent to close at N15.50 per share.

AXA Mansard was up by 6.49 per cent to close at N2.46, while Cutix appreciated by 5.79 per cent to close at N6.40 per share.

On the other hand, Abbey Mortgage Bank led the losers’ chart by 9.47 per cent to close at 86 kobo, per share.

Prestige Assurance followed with a decline of 8.55 per cent to close at 43k, while Regency Alliance Insurance declined by 7.32 per cent to close at 38k per share.

C&I Leasing declined by 6.38 per cent to close at N4.40, while Nigerian Exchange Group shed 6.36 per cent to close at N20.60 per share.

Also, the total volume of trades rose by 32.21 per cent with 674.49 million shares valued at N7.59 billion exchanged in 5,432 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 510.19 million shares worth N5.87 billion traded in 5,485 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 350.54 million shares valued at N4.35 billion.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated followed with 45.64 million shares worth N347.79 million, while Universal Insurance traded 33.92 million shares valued at N6.78 million.

Transcorp traded 32.58 million shares valued at N33.21 million, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company transacted 21.48 million shares worth N614.37 million.

(NAN)