NSE LIVE! Equities sustain rally with N143bn gain

The rally at the Nigerian stock market gathered momentum on Thursday as investors increased buy-orders to lock in value stocks ahead of the inflow of third quarter corporate earnings. Most price changes ended on the positive side while turnover of activities was above average.

Benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated average day-on-day gain of 1.17 per cent, equivalent to net capital gain of N143 billion. The rally nudged the average year-to-date return to 33.1 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from its opening value of N12.171 trillion to close at N12.314 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks share prices, also improved correspondingly to close at 35,773.98 points as against its index-on-board of 35,358.57 points.

With more than two advancers for every decliner, the positive overall market situation was driven by widespread positive sentiments. Most sectoral indices closed on the upside. The NSE Industrial Goods Index led with a gain of 2.8 per cent. The NSE Banking Index rose by 0.8 per cent while the NSE Consumers Goods Index appreciated by 0.5 per cent. On the negative side, the NSE Insurance Index and NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.4 per cent each.

Read also: Following NEITI’s damning report of waste, NBS puts Nigeria’s oil earnings from 1961 to 2014 at N118trn

There were 31 advancers to 14 decliners.  Dangote Cement led the rally with a gain of N5 to close at N215. Nestle Nigeria followed with a gain of N2.99 to close at N1,223.01. Presco rose by N2.95 to close at N61.95. Lafarge Africa appreciated by N2.08 to close at N54.10. Nigerian Breweries rose by N2 to close at N163.60. Total Nigeria added N1.50 to close at N241 per share. Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 50 kobo to close at N41. Dangote Flour Mills chalked up 30 kobo to close at N6.64. Zenith Bank rose by 28 kobo to close at N24.68 while Guaranty Trust Bank added 25 kobo to close at N40.25.

The momentum of activities also improved considerably as investors exchanged 317.4 million shares valued at N2.9 billion. Skye Bank was the most active stock with 94.32 million shares worth N48.14 million. United Bank for Africa followed with 35.75 million shares valued N321.39 million while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria placed third with 26.05 million shares worth N34.93 million.

On the downside, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the decliners with a loss of N8.28 to close N161.72. MRS Oil and Gas declined by N1.51 to close at N28.88. PZ Cussons Nigeria declined by 68 kobo to close at N23.55. Cadbury Nigeria dipped by 54 kobo to close at N10.26. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost 35 kobo to close at N16.75. Unilever Nigeria dropped by 18 kobo to close at N43.43. Africa Prudential dipped by 10 kobo to close at N3.31 per share. May & Baker Nigeria lost 8.0 kobo to close at N2.52. Continental Reinsurance dropped by 7.0 kobo to close at N1.36 while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria slipped by 5.0 kobo to close at N1.33 per share.

“Performance in the near term will remain driven by investor expectation of third quarter 2017 earnings results. Accordingly, we expect the market to close the week in the green,” Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the Exchange, stated.

 

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