By Nkiruka Nnorom

The equities market rounded off the year yesterday in a positive note much in line with analysts’ expectations.

This resulted in huge rise of 3.39 percent in the major equities indicator – the All Share Index, ASI, to 31,430.50 points from 31,037.72 points on Friday.

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Similarly, investors’ wealth represented by equities market capitalization increased by N384 billion to close at N11.720 trillion from N11.337 trillion on Friday last week.

Investment analysts had projected that the market would shrug off Friday losses to end the year in positive region and would continue in same direction, at least, through the first trading week of the new year.

Analysts at Vetiva Capital Management had posited that investors would continue to take position in under-valued stocks this week, leading to heightened activity in the market.

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Also, analysts at Cowry Asset Management, said: “We expect the NSE All Share Index to marginally close in green territory as investors, especially portfolio managers, hunt for undervalued stocks to cut down on their average prices or add new stocks to their portfolios cheaply.”

Further breakdown of transaction during the day showed that activity was positive across the five major sectors with the oil & gas sector leading activity with 3.7 percent increase, the consumer goods sector, followed by 1.42 percent on the back of 4.27 percent increase in Nigerian Breweries Plc shares.

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The industrial goods sector inched up by 0.6 percent, while the insurance and banking sectors were up 0.42 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.