The oil and gas sector led the gainers’ chart on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) with 9.43 per cent last week, driven by strong buying interest in Aradel Holdings Plc and Oando.

The industrial goods sector followed with 3.89 per cent appreciation, driven by improved investor confidence in Premier Paints Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc and Dangote Cement Plc.

The consumer goods sector ranked third with 1.12 per cent, underpinned by buying interest in PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria Plc, while the banking sector also edged up by 0.24 per cent on renewed interest in Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc.

However, the insurance sector declined by 1.88 per cent, due to sustained selling pressure in AXA Mansard Insurance Plc, Universal Insurance Plc and Cornerstone Insurance Plc.

Consequently, the NGX all-share index (ASI) advanced by 2.15 per cent to close at 196,968.15 points while total market capitalisation increased to N126.43 trillion from N123.76 trillion in the preceding week. The growth represented N2.67 trillion gain, lifting the year-to-date return by 26.58 per cent.

Market breadth remained negative with 44 gainers compared to 58 decliners, indicating that losses across a larger number of stocks moderated the broader market gains.

Trading activity weakened during the week, as volume and turnover declined by 32.52 per cent and 9.51 per cent week-on-week, respectively.

However, the number of deals improved by 0.35 per cent during the period as investors traded 3.7 billion shares valued at N177.76 billion across 371,317 deals.

FTG ensured the lead on the gainers’ chart with a 58.5 per cent surge, followed by Premier Paints, which advanced by 32.7 per cent.

Eterna gained 28.7 per cent while NGX Group rose by 21.7 per cent. UACN also appreciated by 20.6 per cent, reflecting strong buying interest in the counters.

On the flip side, MCNichols topped the losers’ chart after shedding 24.4 per cent, followed by Mecure, which declined by 18.9 per cent. Multiverse dropped 18.7 per cent, while Jaizbank lost 18.4 per cent. Omatek also fell by 15.4 per cent, amid profit-taking and sustained selling pressure.

Meanwhile, the FX market may have flipped the logic, trading at a discount at the parallel market.

Last week, the market not only erased the premium on the parallel market, which is the cost of inefficiency of the official market. The differential was negative with the naira trading here at the black market.

In the week, the local currency weakened against the U.S. dollar across both segments of the foreign exchange market, depreciating by 2.19 per cent in the official market to close at N1,393.26/$. It also slipped by 2.14 per cent in the parallel market to about N1,391/$.

Nigeria’s external reserves recorded a modest increase, rising by 0.75 per cent to $49.88 billion, supported by improved foreign exchange inflows.