Despite news that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) plans to further raise interest rates at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, the Nigerian equities market witnessed a marginal growth for the second day Monday.
The bulls had last Friday staged a comeback after days of continuous bear run. Before Friday, the market had witnessed massive sell-offs by politicians who are raising funds ahead of the 2011 general election, while other investors adopted wait-and -see attitude, failed to make new investments.

But bargain hunters in anticipation of expected strong year-end results and low prices of some equities increased their patronage on Friday, driving market indicators northward.
The positive trend was sustained Monday as the twin-market gauge the All-Share Index or ASI and the market capitalisation closed in a positive region.
While the nation’s benchmark ASI appreciated by 0.177 points or 0.7 per cent to close at 24,555.00, the market capitalisation, N56 billion to close at N7.84 trillion from N7.78 trillion last Friday.
Also, the NSE-30 index grew by 0.8 per cent to close at 1,056.02 while the NSE banking index went up by 3.07 per cent to close at 388.54 points.

As usual, the banking sector remained the most active in terms of the volume of shares traded.
It led the equities sector with a total of 135.08 million ordinary shares valued at N1.1 billion made in 2,870 deals.
The volume of shares sold in the banking sector was largely driven by the activity in the shares of First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc and Diamond Bank Plc.
Trading on the shares of the four banks accounted for 80 million ordinary shares or 59.2 per cent of the subsectors’ turnover. In all, investors traded 279.982 million shares worth N2.419 billion in 4,904 deals.
Meanwhile, the price movement chart of the NSE displayed a total of 29 stocks that recorded gains as against 30 on the losers’ table.

Zenith Bank Plc led on the gainers’ table with N0. 70 gain to close at N14.70 per share while Diamond Bank Plc followed with N0.35 o gain to close at N7.35 per share.
On the other hand, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc led on the losers table with a loss of N1.68 to close at N31.92 per share while Total Nigeria Plc trailed on the losers table with N11.41 loss to close at N216.92 per share.