Trading on the nation’s bourse closed on Tuesday, reversing its bearish trend with bargain hunting in Dangote Cement.

Precisely, the All-Share Index inched higher by 44.96 points or 0.11 percent to 39,550.36 from 39,505.40 recorded on Monday.

Thus, month-to-date gain increased to 2.6 percent, while year-to-date loss moderated to 1.8 percent.

Also, the market capitalization rose by N24 billion or 0.11 percent to close at N20.606 trillion against N20.582 trillion on Monday.

The positive performance was due to investors’ increased buying interest in the industrial sector, as inflation declined further to 17.38 percent.

The positive performance of the market was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalized stocks which are; Dangote Cement, Honeywell Flour Mills, UACN, Pharma-Deko, and Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals.

Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd. said: “Given the latest moderation in inflation numbers, we expect to buy sentiment to dominate on Wednesday trading as investors reprice risk on equity assets.”

However, the market closed at par with 16 gainers and 16 losers.

Honeywell Flour Mills drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.78 percent to close at N2.47 per share.

Pharm Deko followed with 9.24 per cent to close at N1.30 and Wema Bank went up 3.70 percent to close at 84k per share.

Neimeth International increased by 3.66 percent to close at N1.70, while Dangote Cement appreciated by 3.31 percent to close at N249.60 per share.

NGX: Key indices record 0.04% marginal growth

On the other hand, SCOA led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.74 percent to close at N1.76 per share.

Nestle followed with 9.09 percent to close at N1,400, while FTN Cocoa Processors lost 8.51 percent to close at 43k per share.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance shed 8.16 percent to close at 45k, while Linkage Assurance dipped 6.35 percent to close at 59k per share.

Transactions in the shares of Transcorp topped the activity chart with 11.94 million shares valued at N11.29 million.

FBN Holdings followed with 11.06 million shares worth N81.32 million, while Oando traded 7.31 million shares valued at N36.38 million.

Access Bank traded 6.19 million shares worth N56.33 million, while Nigerian Aviation Handling Company transacted 5.39 million shares worth N14.20 million.

In all, the total volume of trade declined by 21.6 percent to 110.771 million shares valued at N3.08 billion exchanged in 3,305 deals.

This was against a turnover of 141.28 million shares worth N1.64 billion transacted in 3,393 deals on Monday.