NSE LIVE! High-cap stocks rally equities to a rebound

Highly capitalised stocks in the equally influential oil and gas, consumer goods and industrial goods sectors on Thursday rallied the Nigerian stock market away from a five-day losing streak.

While there were still more losers than gainers, gains recorded by large-cap stocks in the downstream petroleum industry, breweries and cement business lifted the overall market position to a net capital gain of N22 billion.

The recovery halted a five-day negative trading session that had seen several quoted companies trading at their lowest prices in recent period. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose to N9.531 trillion from its opening value of N9.509 trillion, indicating a gain of N22 billion.

The main index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), indicated average day-on-day gain of 0.23 per cent from 27,687.80 points to close at 27,751.34 points. This helped to moderate the negative average year-to-date to -3.11 per cent.

Most sectoral indices at the Exchange closed positive, reflecting the gains recorded by the handful of large-cap stocks, which have substantial influence on the direction of the sectoral and overall indices. The NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 1.4 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rallied 0.8 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 0.4 per cent. However, the NSE Banking Index declined by 0.6 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index depreciated by 0.4 per cent.

Read also: Equities’ downtrend worsens with N50b loss

There were 14 gainers to 17 losers in the five-hour trading session on Thursday. Total Nigeria, the highest-priced downstream petroleum company, led the rebound with a gain of N16.60 to close at N222.60. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a gain of N8.10 to close at N170.10. Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised company, chalked up N2.45 to close at N135. Guinness Nigeria gathered N1.01 to close at N95. Lafarge Africa added 60 kobo to close at N51.60 per share. PZ Cusson Nigeria and Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 55 kobo each to close at N19.55 and N13.80 respectively. Cutix, which posted a dividend recommendation of 12 kobo, rose by 14 kobo to N1.66 while Vitafoam Nigeria gained 10 kobo to N2.90.

On the negative side, International Breweries led the losers with a loss of 96 kobo to close at N18.38. Flour Mills of Nigeria dropped by 43 kobo to close at N20. Forte Oil lost 40 kobo to close at N166.82. Guaranty Trust Bank and Union Bank of Nigeria declined by 18 kobo each to close at N23.88 and N4 respectively while Zenith Bank lost 10 kobo to close at N16.35 per share.

Total turnover stood below recent average with the exchange of 155.77 million shares valued at N1.53 billion in 3,320 deals. Banking stocks dominated the activities chart. FBN Holdings led the chart with a turnover of 30.75 million shares worth N101.85 million. Fidelity Bank followed with a turnover of 23.12 million shares worth N24.47 million while Guaranty Trust Bank placed third with a turnover of 14.15 million shares valued at N340.59 million.

 

 

 

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