The sustained rally in the banking stocks yesterday lifted the stock market performance as the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, market capitalisation increased by N16.5 billion to close at N9.1trillion.

In a similar vein, another stock market performance indicator, NSE All Share Index rose by 0.2 per cent or 18 bases points to close at 26,373.83 points from 26,325.93 points it opened the market.

Market operators attributed the positive performance to further interest in banking stocks which has sustained uptrend for four consecutive sessions due to bargain hunting.

Analysts from, Afrinvest West Africa said “We do not expect the positive sentiment on banking stocks to be sustained for long as pressures in the macro-economic space remain unaddressed.”

Market performance

Specifically, the positive market performance was driven by further gains in Zenith Bank which rose by 2.1 per cent, followed by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI Plc which surged by 4.3v per cent and Access Bank appreciated by 2.9 per cent.

Market activity however remained mixed as volume traded improved by 17.1 per cent to settle at 174.0million units while value traded fell by 68.7 per cent to settle at N1.2 billion.

Market breadth improves

Investor sentiment improved as market breadth strengthened with 17 stocks advancing as against 15 decliners. The best performing stocks were Diamond Bank which gained 7.2 per cent to close at N 1.19 followed by NAHCO rising by 4.5 per cent to close at N 2.80 and ETI which went up 4.3 per cent to close at N10.14 while NCR declined by 4.9 per cent to close at N 8.11 followed by Total which dropped by 4.9 per cent to close at N 285.40 and CUTIX depreciated by 4.5 per cent to record as the worst performers.