NSE LIVE! High-cap stocks lift equities to N31b gain

Nigerian equities on Monday broke away from the losing streak that had marked the first week of this quarter as increased demand for some highly capitalised stocks overshadowed the selling pressure at the stock market.

While there were more losers than gainers, the gains recorded by large-cap stocks such as Nigerian Breweries, Lafarge Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank nudged the overall market position to a net capital gain of N31 billion.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from its opening value of N9.561 trillion to close at N9.592 trillion. The benchmark index for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the All Share Index (ASI), also rose correspondingly by 0.32 per cent to close at 27,925.00 points as against its opening index of 27,835.22 points. Average year-to-date return closed at -2.50 per cent.

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With the rallies within banking, breweries and cement stocks, many sectoral indices closed on the upside. The NSE Banking Index rose by 1.3 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index also rose by 1.3 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index inched up by 0.1 per cent. On the negative side, the NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.5 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index slipped by 0.2 per cent.

Nigerian Breweries, the second most capitalised stock at the stock market, led the 17 gainers with a gain of N2.21 to close at N148.01. Lafarge Africa followed with a gain of N1.80 to close at N49.

Guaranty Trust Bank, the most capitalised banking stock, rallied 45 kobo to close at N23.90. Zenith Bank rose by 32 kobo to close at N14.55. Union Bank of Nigeria gathered 24 kobo to close at N5.04 while Presco rose by 20 kobo to close at N40.20 per share.

Total turnover stood at 171.46 million shares valued at N1.73 billion in 3,045 deals. Zenith Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 27.82 million shares valued at N402.18 million. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with a turnover of 27.77 million shares worth N662.45 million while FCMB Group placed third with a turnover of 16.73 million shares worth N19.5 million.

“Today’s positive close was essentially driven by bargain hunting in tickers that declined the previous week. We believe performance will be influenced this week by investors’ expectation of earnings which we remain conservative on, as we expect resilient performance in the banking sector and weak numbers from consumer and industrial goods companies,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

On the downside, another breweries, Guinness Nigeria led the 23 losers with a loss of N8.62 to close at N79.83. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a loss of N6.72 to close at N185. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria lost 60 kobo to close at N18.40. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria dropped by 30 kobo to close at N5.70. Forte Oil lost 21 kobo to close at N159.69 while Africa Prudential Registrars and Cutix dropped by 14 kobo each to close at N2.69 and N1.89 respectively.

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