Nigeria, Feb. 5 -- Lafarge Africa's announcement on Wednesday of an aspiration to raise the capacity of two of its factories to 5.5 metric tonnes per annum caused its shares, which have been stuck at N157 since 27 January, to rise by 5.1 per cent.

The stock closed at N165 in Lagos, while trade volume quickened by 950 per cent to 10.5 million, its peak level in at least the last ten days.

Lafarge Africa, which manufactures cement, concrete, and aggregates, stated in a note to the Nigerian Exchange that it has lined up its Ashakacem and Sagamu plants for expansion, which will increase their annual capacity to 2 mt and 3.5 mt, respectively.

The company's installed production capacity is currently 10.5 million tons per annum, shared across...