Lagos — Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange gained N64 billion within two days to close uptick yesterday at N6.56 trillion while the key benchmark indices gaining 172.25 basis points or 0.84 per cent to close at 20,797.81.

Consequently, three out of the five stock sectoral indices closed positive as stock index which basically measures the performance of blue chips rose by 0.84 per cent to close at N930.96 points.

The stock's Food & Beverages index gained 0.36 per cent to close at 1,681.62 points and the stock banking index also gained 0.88 per cent to close at 265.33 points. Stock Insurance index went down by 0.60 per cent to close at 123.60 point, while oil and gas closed flat.

During the day, a turnover of 196 million shares worth N2.19 billion in 2,700 deals was recorded yesterday, in contrast to a total of 420 million shares valued at N2.05 billion exchanged last Friday in 3,323 deals.

The financial services sector accounted for 178 million shares valued at N1.29 billion traded in 1,670 deals. The banking sub-sector was the most active during the day measured by turnover volume with 158 million shares worth N1.28 billion exchanged by investors in 1,602 deals.

Volume in the banking sub-sector was largely driven by activity in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc, First Bank Plc, and Fidelity Bank Plc.

The number of gainers at the close of trading session closed at 24 as against 17 recorded in the previous session while decliners also closed at 11 as against 24 losers recorded in the previous trading day.

However, Newgold Plc led on the gainers' table with a gain of N75.00 kobo to close at N2,660. 00 kobo per share while Dangote Cement Plc followed with a gain of N2.02 kobo to close at N120.00 kobo per share and Unilever Plc gained N1.48 kobo to close at N31.08 kobo per share.

On the other hand, Cadbury Nigeria Plc led on the losers' table and dropped N0.46 kobo to close at N10.52 kobo per share while Presco Plc followed with a loss of N0.43 kobo to close at N8.24 kobo per share and Stanbic IBTC Plc with N0.35 kobo to close at N6.65 kobo per share.