Despite N298bn appreciation recorded in the country’s equities market, Nascon Allied Industries Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and University Press Plc closed in losses at Wednesday’s trading.

Nacon, Cadbury and UPL shares plummeted respectively by 4.98 per cent, 4.97 per cent and 4.94 per cent.

Trailing the top three losers were Airline Services and Logistics Plc and AG Leventis Nigeria Plc, which also slumped by 4.87 per cent and 4.17 per cent, accordingly.

A total of 960.751 million shares valued at N12.52bn exchanged hands in 8,866 deals.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation rose to N16.080tn from N15.782tn while the NSE All-Share Index closed at 44,885.24 basis points from 44,054.72 basis points.

The Nigerian equities market advanced by 1.89 per cent, pushing the year-to-date return up to 17.37 per cent. Similarly, market volume and value advanced by 51.20 per cent and 63.96 per cent, respectively.

The market recorded 44 gainers and 19 losers.

The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc led the market with a 10.17 per cent share price appreciation. Other top gainers were Diamond Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, which appreciated accordingly by 10.1 per cent, 10 per cent, 9.91 per cent and 9.75 per cent.

All sector indices closed positively, save for the consumer goods sector, which declined by 0.64 per cent.

The NSE industrial goods, the NSE insurance, the NSE oil/gas and the NSE banking indices advanced by 4.42 per cent, 1.80 per cent, 1.79 per cent and 0.51 per cent, accordingly.

Commenting on the market’s performance, analysts at Meristem Securities Limited, in a post, said, “The Nigerian bourse continues to record increased investor confidence as the market advanced further by 1.89 per cent on Wednesday.

“We note that activities in the day were skewed towards counters below N5, as they were 30 out of the 44 gainers. However, we posit that the market’s impressive performance was as a result of the N13 gain on Dangote Cement Plc, as the market would have advanced by just 0.67 per cent ex-Dangote Cement.