FRI JULY 10 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s equities market extended its bullish run on Thursday, with renewed buying interest in MTNN, FIRSTHOLDCO and Zenith Bank driving the benchmark All-Share Index 0.6% higher to 243,958.73 points.
The advance pushed the market’s month-to-date return to 6.3% and year-to-date gain to 56.8%, while investors added N970 billion in value as market capitalisation climbed 0.62% to N156.55 trillion.
The rally was underpinned by strong demand for MTNN (+3.9%), FIRSTHOLDCO (+10.0%) and ZENITHBANK (+3.3%), which helped sustain bullish momentum across the market.
Trading activity strengthened sharply, with total volume traded surging 286.64% to 1.66 billion units worth N111.98 billion across 44,780 deals.
FIRSTHOLDCO dominated market activity, accounting for the highest traded volume of 1.26 billion shares and transaction value of N85.61 billion.
Performance across sectors was mixed. The Banking Index rose 1.3%, while the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices gained 1.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
The Oil & Gas Index slipped 0.2%, while the Industrial Goods Index closed flat.
Market breadth remained positive at 1.2x, with 27 stocks advancing against 23 decliners.
INTBREW (+10.0%) and FIRSTHOLDCO (+10.0%) recorded the session’s strongest gains, while THOMASWY (-10.0%) and GEREGU (-10.0%) posted the steepest losses.
The NASD Over-the-Counter market, however, ended the session lower, with the NASD Security Index (NSI) falling 1.19% to 4,199.48 points.
Market capitalisation declined by the same margin to N2.52 trillion, while the year-to-date return eased to 18.50%.
Despite the decline, trading activity on the NASD market strengthened significantly.
Total traded volume jumped 14,965.35%, while the value of transactions rose 528.09%. A total of 23,943,818 shares worth N68.17 million changed hands across 30 deals.
On the performance chart, SDIPWAPLC gained 9.06% to emerge as the top-performing stock, while SDUBNPROP fell 10.56% to lead the decliners.
In the foreign exchange market, the official naira exchange rate appreciated by 0.1% to NGN1,379.35 per U.S. dollar.
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