The Nigerian equity market opened the new week with a N79bn gain, driven by appreciation recorded by 32 stocks.

At the close of trading on Monday, the market capitalisation was up by 0.14 per cent to N56.5tn and the All-Share Index added 138.61 points to settle at 98,386.60 points.

Consequently, the local bourse’s year-to-date return improved to 31.58 per cent.

In terms of market activity, 410.43 million shares worth N5.51bn were traded in 10,669 deals.

However, the day’s trading volume reflected a 26 per cent decline from the previous and turnover dropped by 46 per cent.

Despite the lower trading volume and turnover, the number of deals improved by 23 per cent, signalling increased market participation.

FCMB Group and McNichols led other gainers with a 10 per cent appreciation to close at N8.80 and N1.87, respectively.

Fidelity Bank followed closely with a 9.93 per cent increase to close at N14.95.

Other gainers were Tantalizers, which rose by 9.84 per cent to close at N0.67, Flour Mills of Nigeria, with a 9.81 per cent gain to close at N55.40, and Caverton, which appreciated by 9.76 per cent to close at N4.05.

Berger Paints, which dipped by 9.83 per cent to close at N21.10, led 19 other laggards.

Daar Communications followed with a 9.33 per cent decrease to N0.68, while Deap Capital saw a 9.09 per cent drop, closing at N0.90.

In terms of volume, Transcorp Nigeria topped the list with 66.8 million shares traded, followed by Fidelity Bank, which recorded 43.1 million shares in transactions.

Access Holdings traded 25.1 million shares, while NPF Microfinance Bank recorded 24.6 million shares traded, rounding out the list of top volume drivers for the day.