The Nigerian stock market extended its bullish run on Wednesday, adding N881 billion to investors’ wealth as renewed buying interest in key equities strengthened overall market sentiment.
The surge was driven by increased demand for large- and mid-cap stocks, including Meyer, Nestlé Nigeria, Fortis Global Insurance, Consolidated Hallmark Holdings, and Zichis Agro Allied Industries, alongside 44 other price gainers that lifted the broad market performance.
Market analysts attributed the sustained positive momentum partly to the National Pension Commission’s (PenCom) revised investment regulations, which raised the allowable limits for investments in ordinary shares under Retirement Savings Account (RSA) funds.
Under the new framework, RSA Fund I allocation increased from 30 per cent to 35 per cent; RSA Fund II from 25 per cent to 33 per cent; RSA Fund III from 10 per cent to 15 per cent; and RSA Fund VI Active from 25 per cent to 33 per cent—moves expected to channel more pension funds into equities.
At the close of trading, market capitalisation rose from N113.496 trillion to N114.377 trillion, representing a gain of N881 billion or 0.78 per cent. Similarly, the All-Share Index advanced by 1,375.11 points, or 0.78 per cent, to settle at 178,184.54 compared with 176,809.43 recorded on Tuesday.
Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return climbed to 14.50 per cent, while market breadth remained positive with 49 gainers against 32 losers.
Nestlé Nigeria, Meyer, Consolidated Hallmark Holdings, and Fortis Global Insurance topped the gainers’ chart with a 10 per cent increase each, closing at N2,420, N20.90, N4.95, and 33 kobo per share respectively. Zichis Agro Allied Industries followed closely, rising by 9.98 per cent to settle at N8.93 per share.
On the losers’ table, Honeywell Flour declined by 9.70 per cent to close at N22.80, while Neimeth International Pharmaceutical dropped 9.15 per cent to N12.90.
The Initiates fell by 5.81 per cent to N19.45 per share, RT Briscoe shed 5.70 per cent to end at N14.40, and Sterling Nigeria lost 5.56 per cent to close at N7.65 per share.
Trading activity showed mixed performance, with a total of 939.2 million shares valued at N34.03 billion exchanged in 61,279 transactions.
Compared to the previous session’s 1.3 billion shares worth N50.4 billion traded across 58,965 deals, this represented an 11 per cent decline in volume and a 30 per cent drop in value, despite a four per cent increase in the number of deals.
Tantalizer recorded the highest trading volume with 85.32 million shares, accounting for 9.08 per cent of the day’s total, while Aradel led in value traded at N2.98 billion, representing 8.77 per cent of the overall turnover.
