NSE LIVE! Equities upbeat as investors await monetary decisions

Nigerian equities opened this week with a gain of N48 billion, sustaining the positive sentiments that upturned the long-drawn decline and added N107 billion in new capital gains in the previous week.

With improved momentum of activities, quoted equities ended the week with a week-on-week gain of N107 billion, representing a weekly average gain of 1.33 per cent. The gain, though modest, helped to reduce the negative average year-to-date return to -16.81 per cent.

The market reopened on Monday still on the upbeat as investors await the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which started its two-day meeting on Monday and it is billed to conclude and make its monetary policy statements Tuesday.

Key indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed positive. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities improved by N48 billion from N8.194 trillion to close at N8.242 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities, also rose by 0.58 per cent to close at 23,963.64 points as against its opening index of 23,826.50 points. The sustained uptrend further helped to reduce the accumulated losses so far this year, reducing the negative average year-to-date return to -16.33 per cent.

There were 25 gainers to 15 losers. Nestle Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N17.86 to close at N725.01. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N10.43 to close at N112.28. Seplat Petroleum Development Company rose by N7.83 to close at N164.54. Seven-Up Bottling Company added N3.30 to close at N190. Flour Mills of Nigeria gathered N1.02 to close at N17.95 per shares. Guaranty Trust Bank gathered 93 kobo to close at N16.29. Zenith Bank rose by 88 kobo to close at N12.18. Cadbury Nigeria added 69 kobo to close at N14.58. Nigeria Aviation Handling Company chalked up 34 kobo to close at N3.90 while Oando rose by 17 kobo to close at N3.87 per share.

Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE, said attractive prices quickened investors’ appetite for value stocks, especially in the oil & gas and banking sectors. But analysts remained cautious and were unanimous the monetary decisions to be announced today would determine the immediate market direction.

According to analysts, the waning market breadth suggested that some investors were already taking profit but the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), scheduled to be released on Tuesday, would determine trading sentiment.

“Given the current attractive entry price of some fundamentally strong stocks, long term opportunities still exist in the market although we advise investors with a short holding period to trade cautiously,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

 

Total turnover stood at 215.18 million shares worth N2.10 billion in 3,861 deals. Zeni9th Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 42.89 million shares worth N521.76 million. United Bank for Africa followed with a turnover of 28.18 million shares worth N85.7 million.

On the other hand, Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised stock, led the losers with a loss of N5.20 to close at N102.80. Lafarge Africa declined by N1 to close at N81. Berger Paints dropped by 96 kobo to N9.01. Northern Nigerian Flour Mills lost 40 kobo to close at N7.73. FBN Holdings declined by 23 kobo to close at N4.27 per share. Vitafoam Nigeria dropped by 22 kobo to close at N4.70. Champion Breweries lost 16 kobo to close at N3.07. Airline Services and Logistics declined by 10 kobo to close at N2.09. Learn Africa lost 7.0 kobo to close at 76 kobo while Fidelity Bank dropped by 6.0 kobo to close at N1.27 per share.

 

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