The Nigerian equity market on Monday reserved the two-day down trend with a marginal gain of 0.18 per cent, starting the week on a positive note.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the All-Share Index appreciated by 47.90 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 26,373.83 as against 26,325.93 recorded on Friday.

Similarly, the market capitalization, which opened at N9.058 trillion inched N15 billion to close at N9.073 trillion.

NAN reports that the upturn was largely boosted by value appreciation recorded in some medium and large capitalised stocks, such as ETI, Access Bank, Zenith Bank and Mobil Oil, among others.

Mobil Oil led the gainers’ table appreciating by N5.23 to close at N255.09 per share.

It was trailed by Ecobank Transnational with a gain of 42k to close at N10.14 and Zenith Bank improved by 33k to close at N15.90 per share.

Stanbic IBTC increased by 30k to close at N15.80, while Access Bank grew by 20k to close at N6.89 per share.

On the other hand, Total recorded the highest price loss to lead the loser’ table, shedding N14.60 to close at N285.40 per share.

7UP trailed with a loss of N4.40 to close at N107 and Guinness dipped N3.03 to close at N69.99 per share.

NCR was down by 42k to close at N8.11 and Forte Oil also declined by 42k to close at N73.58 per share.

Diamond Bank was the most active stock with an exchange of 38.69 million shares worth N44.89 million.

Fidelity Bank came second with 29.58 million shares valued at N26.61 million, while Stanbic IBTC traded 11.97 million shares worth N185.62 million.

Access Bank sold 11.07 million shares at N75.39 million, while FCMB Group exchanged 10.69 million shares valued at N13.58 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded closed higher as investors bought and sold 174.01 million shares worth N1.18 billion transacted in 3,075 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 148.57 million shares worth N3.76 billion exchanged in 2,653 deals on Friday.

(NAN)