NSE LIVE! Equities rally N276b gain amidst growing confidence

Nigerian equities started the new month of May with a major rally as impressive corporate earnings and a subtle vote of confidence by MSCI quickened the bargain-hunting for quoted equities. Key indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that the market on Tuesday was at its best in recent periods with nearly three advancers for every decliner.

Average indices indicated a day-on-day gain of 3.2 per cent, equivalent to a gain of N276 billion. Aggregate market capitalization of all equities rose by N276 billion from its opening value of N8.621 trillion to close at N8.897 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI) – a value-based common index that tracks prices of all quoted equities, appreciated by 3.20 per cent to close at 25,865.50 points as against its opening index of 25,062.41 points.

With 33 gainers to 12 losers, the positive market situation was boosted by the impressive first-quarter results of Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigeria’s highest-priced stock, and the decision of the MSCI to retain Nigeria in its global equities indexes.

Analysts at FSDH Securities said the “the equity market leaped today as a result of the growing confidence on the prospects of the Nigerian economy”.

Major highlights of the unaudited report and accounts of Nestle Nigeria for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 showed that turnover rose by 31 per cent to N36.13 billion in 2016 as against N27.56 billion recorded in comparable period of 2015. Profit before tax also rose by 150 per cent from N3.49 billion to N8.72 billion while profit after tax doubled by 126 per cent from N2.95 billion to N6.68 billion.

Analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited described Nestle Nigeria’s three-month performance as superlative. Nestle Nigeria had recently announced a total dividend of N22.99 billion for the 2015 business after it braced all the odds to sustain growth across key performance indices.

MSCI, the global provider of research-based indexes and analytics, on Tuesday decided to retain Nigeria in its benchmark indexes following a review of Nigeria’s continued inclusion in its frontier markets index. MSCI will however not implement changes resulting from its upcoming May 2016 semi-annual index reviews for Nigerian securities. Nigerian equities will be placed under a “special treatment” status, while some individual stocks that no longer meet MSCI criteria will be deleted from the indexes.

“The major drivers of market performance were Nestle, Dangote Cement and Nigerian Breweries largely traceable to the decision by the MSCI to keep the Nigerian market in its emerging markets index,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

Read also: NSE Roundup! Equities in month-end rally with N73b gain

Nestle Nigeria recorded the highest gain of N63.06 or 10.25 per cent, the highest gain in both value and percentage terms, to close at N678.32. Dangote Cement, NSE’s most capitalised stock, followed with a gain of N8.17 to close at N171.57. Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised stock, placed third with a gain of N5.79 to close at N121.68. Lafarge Africa rose by N3.39 to close at N71.38. Guinness Nigeria rallied N2.72 to close at N94. Total Nigeria chalked up N1.84 to close at N156.03. PZ Cussons Nigeria gathered N1.06 to close at N22.42. Cadbury Nigeria rose by 77 kobo to close at N16.27. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated chalked up 52 kobo to close at N15.50 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings added 45 kobo to close at N14.30.

Sectoral review showed widespread gains across the sectors. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rose by 5.0 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index rallied by 4.7 per cent. The NSE Banking Index rose by 2.3 per cent while NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 0.3 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index depreciated by 3.6 per cent.

Total turnover on Tuesday stood at 220.11 million shares valued at N1.50 billion in 3,474 deals. The three most active stocks were Access Bank, 47.44 million shares; FCMB Group, 27.79 million shares and FBN Holdings, 24.97 million shares.

On the negative side, Forte Oil recorded the highest loss of N20.89 to close at N193.46. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria dropped by N1.12 to close at N21.43 while Nascon Allied Industries lost 43 kobo to close at N8.27 per share.

 

 

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