NSE LIVE! Nestle Nigeria, Dangote Cement lead equities to N70bn gain

Two leading Nigerian equities-Nestle Nigeria and Dangote Cement on Thursday rallied the equities market to its second consecutive positive closing in spite of continuing selling pressure across the market..

While there were 22 decliners to 16 advancers, gains by large-cap stocks mitigated the sell pressure.

Nestle Nigeria-the highest-priced stock at the equities market, recorded the highest gain of N15 on Thursday to close at N1,205. Dangote Cement-Africa’s largest cement company and Nigeria’s most capitalised quoted company, followed with a gain of N4.99 to close at N213.99.

The gains by the two leading stocks nudged the overall market position to average day-on-day gain of 0.55 per cent, equivalent to net capital gain of N70 billion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks share prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose from its opening index of 35,464.34 points to close at 35,660.04 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the Exchange increased correspondingly from its opening value of N12.224 trillion to close at N12.294 trillion. The average year-to-date return improved to 32.69 per cent.

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Most sectoral indices closed positive. The NSE Industrial Goods Index rose by 1.1 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index improved by 0.4 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 0.2 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index dropped by 1.0 per cent while the NSE Banking Index declined by 0.6 per cent.

Other top gainers included Okomu Oil Palm, which rose by N3.61 to close at N66.50. Flour Mills of Nigeria added 50 kobo to close at N27. Nigerian Breweries garnered 49 kobo to close at N180..55.UAC of Nigeria rose by 43 kobo to close at N15.45. Newrest ASL added 15 kobo to close at N6.50. UACN Property Development Company chalked up 10 kobo to close at N3 while C & I Leasing and Dangote Flour Mills added 5.0 kobo each to close at N1.20 and N6.49 respectively.

On the negative side, Total Nigeria led the decliners with a drop of N2.90 to close at N232.10. Unilever Nigeria declined by N2.20 to close at N41.80. Conoil dropped by N1.45 to close at N27.55. Zenith Bank lost 55 kobo to close at N22.20. International Breweries dipped by 47 kobo to close at N37.53. Oando declined by 32 kobo to close at N6.10. Lafarge Africa declined by 16 kobo to close at N50.36 while Honeywell Flour Mills dipped by 10 kobo to close at N2 per share.

Total turnover stood at 128.31 million shares valued at N2.72 billion in 3,241 deals. The most active stock was Zenith Bank with a turnover of 20.22 million shares valued at N451.76 million. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 19.11 million shares valued at N724.47 million while Skye Bank placed third with 10.51 million shares valued at N5.41 million.

“In line with our expectation, today (Thursday)’s market performance was largely driven by bargain hunting in market bellwethers. Hence, we expect the market to trade in similar trend tomorrow (Friday),” Afrinvest Securities stated.

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