Nigerian stocks rose for second straight trading session on Monday, advancing by 0.15 per cent, with mobile operator MTNN and construction giant Julius Berger leading the charge.

But the pace of gain was somewhat arrested by profit-taking in some stocks like Oando, Dangote Sugar, Presco and WAPCO.

A sweeping quiet fell upon the market regarding earnings release in stark contrast to Friday when the bourse was awash with a stream of financial reports apparently striving to meet up with July end deadline.

The financials of the Big 5 banks are due in the days ahead, which could determine the trajectory of the whole market in the short term.

“We expect investors to react to the late flurry of results that came into the market last week,” analysts at broker United Capital said of this week in a note.

“That said, we expect to see a tight trading week as investors continue to take profits of the table while others consider decent entry prices into large cap banking stocks yet to publish their H2-2021 scorecards.”

Market breadth, which measures investors’ sentiment, was negative as 26 losers emerged against to 17 gainers.

The all-share index added 57.64 basis points to 38,604.72, while market capitalisation closed lower at N20.114 trillion.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Julius Berger led gainers, appreciating by 8.89 per cent to close at N24.50. NPF Microfinance Bank rose to N1.89, notching up 8 per cent in the process.

Regal Insurance added 7.14 per cent to end trade at N0.45. Linkage Assurance went up by 6.67 per cent to N0.64. Mutual Benefits completed the top 5, climbing by 5.41 per cent to N0.39.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

Eterna led losers, declining by 10 per cent to close at N6.39. Neimeth shed 9.71 per cent to close at N1.58. Tripple Gee fell to N0.90, losing 9.09 per cent.

Dangote Sugar slumped to N17.50, recording 9.41 per cent depreciation. WAPCO closed at N21.75, going down by 5.08 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

Altogether, 224.594 million shares estimated at N244.3 were traded in 4,609 deals.

Transcorp was the most active stock with 40.3 million units of its shares worth N40 million traded in 209 deals. C&I Leasing traded 26.1 million shares priced at N122.6 million exchanged hands in 3 transactions.

FCMB had 17.7 million shares valued at N55.7 million traded in 54 deals. Oando traded 16.587 million shares estimated at N57.2 million in 272 transactions. Sovereign Trust traded 8.215 million shares valued at N2.188 million in 15 deals.