NSE LIVE! Equities regain rally with N94b gain

After losing N684 billion in the two earlier trading sessions, Nigerian equities on Thursdayregained their rally with a modest gain of N94 billion. Benchmark index indicated a modest average gain of 1.02 per cent as highly capitalised stocks rally the stock market to a positive close.

However, with 31 losers to 23 gainers, the underlying sentiments remained largely negative as investors await the final guidelines on the flexible foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and certainty on the medium-term policy direction of the government.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), rallied to 27,183.64 points from its opening index of 26,910.23 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from N9.242 trillion to close at N9.336 trillion.

Read Also :  NSE LIVE! Equities lose N425b in month-end profit-taking

The day-on-day average gain of 1.02 per cent helped to reduce the resurgent negative average year-to-date return to -5.09 per cent. While there were still widespread sell pressure, the overall market position was driven largely by gains recorded by a handful of high-cap stocks including Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, Lafarge Africa, Cadbury Nigeria, Flour Mills of Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries.

Sectoral review showed the mixed performance that dogged the price changes throughout the trading session. The NSE Industrial Goods Index rose by 2.6 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 1.5 per cent while the NSE Banking Index inched up by 0.5 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index and NSE Insurance Index dropped by 2.0 per cent each.

Nigerian Breweries led the gainers with a gain of N6.41 to close at N134.71. Lafarge Africa followed with a gain of N3.67 to close at N77.07. Dangote Cement rallied N3 to close at N170. Cadbury Nigeria gained N1.84 to close at N20.21. Flour Mills of Nigeria added N1.02 to close at N21.44 while Dangote Sugar Refinery and Zenith Bank rose by 31 kobo each to close at N6.69 and N13.91 respectively.

Total turnover stood at 332.23 million shares valued at N2.16 billion in 4,167 deals. The three most active stocks were: United Bank for Africa, with 93.13 million shares; FCMB Group, 40.54 million shares and Access Bank, which recorded turnover of 30.95 million shares.

“Today’s positive performance was broadly driven by bargain hunting in some market bellwethers that have declined significantly in previous trading sessions and we expect this trend to be sustained tomorrow. Nevertheless, performance for the week will close in the red zone,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based investment firm, stated on the outlook for trading in the last trading session of the week.

However, Nestle Nigeria led the losers with a loss of N29.66 to close at N755. Seplat Petroleum Development Company followed with a drop of N9.85 to close at N350.15. Forte Oil dropped by N4.80 to close at N191.10. Guinness Nigeria lost N1.46 to close at N97.65 while UAC of Nigeria dropped by 86 kobo to close at N19 per share.

 

 

 

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

 

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now