The positive performance of Nigerian Stock Exchange was sustained on Tuesday as buying interest in Dangote cement (+10.0percent), MTN Nigeria (+3.5percent) and Nestle (+6.0percent) saw  investors gain N374.9bn as market capitalization rose to N12.4tn while year to date loss eased to -11.3percent.

The gains in bellwethers lifted the benchmark index by 312bps to close at 23,809.31 points.

The volume and value of shares traded rose 37.7percent and 77.4percent to 344.0m units and N4.3bn respectively.

The most active stocks by volume were Guaranty Trust Bank (54.3m units), Mbenefit (41.8m units) and Zenith bank (40.3m units) .while GTB (N1.1bn), MTNN (N913.5m) and Zenith (N591.0m) led the value chart.

Performance across sectors was bullish as 5 of 6 indices covered gained. The Banking and Consumer Goods indices led gainers, up 2.4percent apiece following price appreciation in Zenith (+3.5percent), Access bank (+6.6percent), Nestle (+6.0percent) and Honeyflour (+2.1percent).

29 stocks gained relative to 7 losers. The top were cement (+10.0percent), Neimeth (+9.3percent) and Prestige (+9.1percent) while May and baker (-10.0percent), Nigerian Police force Microfinance bank (-9.6percent) and Linkassure (-9.4percent) were top losers.

Analysts at Afrinvest projected that investors will continue to cherry-pick fundamentally sound stocks in the market.”

Daily Trust