The shares of Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc boosted the volume of deals at the equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.
The banking sub-sector sustained its lead on the activity chart, accounting for 34 per cent of the 325.078 million shares worth N5.391bn, which were traded in 5,204 deals.
In the sub-sector, 110.568 million shares valued at N1.761bn exchanged hands in 1,237 deals.
The overall trading closed on a positive note for the third session this week with the NSE All Share Index rising by 1.6 per cent or 547.99 basis points to close at 34,515.47 basis points.
The ASI had risen by 296.73 basis points or 0.9 per cent from 33,670.75 basis points to 33,967.48 basis points the previous day.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation of the listed equities gained N181bn or 1.6 per cent to close at N11.432tn, compared the N98bn appreciation that raised it to N11.250tn on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the NSE 30 Index, which measures the performance of the 30 most capitalised companies on the Exchange rose by 0.5 per cent to close at 1,560.35 basis points, while the NSE Banking Index declined by 1.8 per cent to 359.46 basis points from 366.11 basis points.
