FRI SEPT 04 2026-theGBJournal| The Nigerian equities market closed Thursday on a bullish note, driven by gains in SEPLAT (+10.0%), MTNN (+0.1%), ZENITHBANK (+0.3%) and DANGSUGAR (+1.4%), which drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.2% to 246,388.22 points.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled higher at +0.9% and +58.3%, respectively.
The total volume traded expanded by 1.7% to 434.02 million units, valued at N29.30 billion, and exchanged in 42,303 deals.
UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 113.26 million units and N5.23 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Insurance (-2.0%), Banking (-0.3%) and Consumer Goods (-0.2%) indices declined, while the Oil & Gas (+2.2%) index advanced. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.7x), as 22 tickers gained relative to 33 losers. SEPLAT (+10.0%) and UPDCREIT (+9.9%) led the gainers, while RTBRISCOE (-10.0%) and CMFC (-9.9%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
Meanwhile, the NASD OTC market closed Thursday’s session on a positive note as well, as the NASD Security Index (NSI) advanced by 0.80% to 4,468.63 points.
Market capitalisation also rose by 0.80% to N2.68 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return improved to 26.10%, from 25.10% in the previous session.
Trading activity weakened, with traded volume decreasing by 38.38% to 716,755 units, while transaction value fell by 57.58% to N44.01 million. A total of 69 trades were executed, representing a 79.62% increase from the previous session.
On the performance chart, SDCSCSPLC (+6.25%) led the gainers, while SDIGIPLC (-8.00%) emerged as the session’s top loser.
At the Nigerian foreign exchange market (NAFEM) the naira rose by 0.9% to N1,316.40/USD as the external reserves increased by 0.17% to $53.90 billion as of 1 September 2026, extending the recent improvement in the country’s reserve position.
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