Trading on the Nigerian bourse opened on Monday on a positive note with turnover appreciating by 1,103.94 per cent due to off-market trade in Oando Plc.

Specifically, a total of 2.40 billion units valued at N16.47 billion were exchanged by investors in 4,811 deals.

This was in contrast with 199.52 million shares worth N3.26 billion traded in 3,917 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Oando topped the activity chart with 1.97 billion shares valued at N11.83 billion in off-market trade at N6 per share in eight deals.

The transaction was negotiated as a cross deal by APT Securities and Funds Ltd. as both buyer and seller.

Speaking on the transaction, a broker at APT Securities and Funds Ltd., who pleaded anonymity, said the transaction was part of the agreement between Oando and Ocean and Oil Development Partners Ltd. to settle their dispute.

The stockbroker said Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, representative of company, was realising all his holdings as part of settlement in line with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandate to the company to settle all the grievances causing issues with its majority shareholder.

The broker said Mangal would also withdraw his directors; both the executive director, Mukhtar Zubair and non-executive director, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, as part of the settlement agreement.

Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with 133.98 million shares worth N32.59 million, while FBNH traded 88.66 million shares valued at N1.08 billion.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) traded 43.15 million shares valued at N1.10 billion, while Sterling Bank transacted 25.49 million shares worth N37.75 million.

Also, the All-Share Index inched higher by 60.86 points or 0.14 per cent to close at 43,260.13 from 43,199.27 achieved on Friday.

Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date gains increased to 2.9 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively.

Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N22.544 trillion rose by N31 billion or 0.14 per cent to close at N22.575 trillion.

The positive performance of the market was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Nestle, FBN Holdings (FBNH), Conoil, Honeywell Flour Mills and Zenith Bank.

The market closed positive with 18 gainers in contrast with 16 losers.

Honeywell Flour Mills drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.73 per cent to close at N3.72 per share.

NEM Insurance came second with 7.89 per cent to close at N2.05, while FBNH went up by 6.49 per cent to close at N12.30 per share.

Oando rose by 5.97 per cent to close at N5.15, while Champion Breweries gained 3.83 per cent to close at N2.71 per share.

On the other hand, The Initiates Plc led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.76 per cent to close at 37k per share.

UACN Property Development Company followed with 9.74 per cent to close at N1.39, while FTN Cocoa processors declined by 9.09 to close at 40k per share.

Japaul Gold and Ventures lost 4.88 per cent to close at 39k, while Universal Insurance shed 4.76 per cent to close at 20k per share.