Nigerian stocks rise for third day in a row

LAGOS: Nigerian stocks rose for the third day in a row on Wednesday, climbing 1.53 percent as investors bought shares of the relatively liquid banking sector as well as consumer goods and oil companies.

The stock market gained 16 percent in the first quarter, helped by rising oil prices, but then saw a sell-off and is now down 1 percent so far this year as rising US interest rates hit emerging markets.

Bargain hunters moved in this week. The index of Nigeria's top 10 consumer goods companies rose 2.5 percent on Wednesday. The banking index climbed 1.15 percent.

Fidelity Bank, Oando, Diamond Bank , Lafarge Africa, Dangote Flour Mills and Transcorp all rose more than 9 percent.