Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a positive note on Friday after four consecutive days of bearish trading, with analysts attributing the appreciation to price gains by major capitalised stocks.

The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) reports that market capitalisation increased by N95 bilion or 0.82 per cent to close higher at N11.612 trillion, from the N11.517 trillion recorded on Thursday.

Also, the All-Share Index, which opened at 30,885.31, rose by 254.04 points or 0.82 per cent to close at 31,139.35.

International Breweries led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N1.95 to close at N26 per share.

Sang Cement followed with a gain of N1.6 to close at N189.7, while GTBank added N1.35 to close at N37.5 per share.

CCNN also appreciated by 9k to close at N20.9, while Stanbic IBTC increased by 5k to close at N45.5 per share.

On the other hand, Total Oil dominated the laggards’ table, shedding N4 to close at N196 per share.

Cadbury came second with a loss of N1.1 to close at N9.9, while Okomu Oil lost N1 to close at N79 per share.

NASCON was down by 9k to close at N20, while PZ Cussons declined by 75k to close at N10.5 per share.

Access Bank Plc was the most active stock during the day, trading 98.93 million shares worth N722.23 million.

Zenith Bank followed with an account of 21.05 million shares valued at N463.29 million, while GT Bank sold 15.85 million shares worth N589.57 million.

Sterling Bank traded 11.10 million shares valued at N26.51 million, while Wapic Insurance exchanged 8.19 million shares worth N3.27 million.

In all, investors traded 231.23 million shares valued at N2.62 billion exchanged in 3,253 deals.

This was in contrast with 250.03 million shares valued at N2.43 billion exchanged by investors in 3,869 deals on Thursday.

(NAN)