Stock market rallies N111.87bn gain amidst positive corporate results in first half of 2018

As corporate firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued to chunk out their corporate results for the first half of 2018 (H1:18), investors sentiment remained strong over the companies’ positive performance, causing sustained bullish run on the local burse for the third consecutive session.

After the close of transactions today, the key performance index of the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI) rose by 84 basis points to close at 36,946.05 points, while the year-to-date loss of the ASI stood at 3.39 percent.

Specifically, investors sustained last Friday’s gain by recording a profit of N111.87 billion as the market capitalization of listed equities, which opened at N13.27 trillion, closed at N13.38 trillion.

Also, the stock market recorded 31 gainers against 22 losers today even as shares of Seplat, United Bank for Africa and Nestle Nigeria lifted the NSE Oil & Gas, NSE Banking and Consumer Goods indexes by 4.99 percent, 1.48 percent and 0.53 percent respectively.

Analysts at Afrinvest said, “In line with our expectation, the bullish trend was sustained in today’s session. Thus, we believe this positive run to persist as investors continue to take position in anticipation of more H1:2018 earnings scorecards.”

Mutual Benefit Assurance and Seplat recorded the highest profit, rising by 10 percent to close at 33 Kobo and N687.50 per share respectively. Northern Nigerian Flour Mills trailed with an increase of 9.92 percent to close at N7.20 per share, while Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals and Oando gained by 9.52 percent to close at 46 Kobo and N5.75 per share.

On the other hand, Phama-deko and Conoil both led the losers’ chart dropping by 10 percent to close at N1.98 and N24.30 per share. Medview Airline followed by shedding 9.81 percent to close at N1.93 per share, while Red Star Express declined by 9.68 percent to close at N5.60 per share.

Transcorp Hotels lost 9.40 percent to close at N6.75 per share.

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However, despite reporting a decrease in revenue of N95.2 billion for the period ended June 2018 compared to N95.4 billion reported for the period ended June 2017, Nigerian Breweries rose by 48 basis points to close at N104.50 per share. The company’s profit after tax for H1:2018 was N8.23 billion, representing 33 percent decrease compared to N12.32 recorded in the same period last year.

A breakdown of the activities chart indicates that Medview Airline was the most active stock in volume trading at 100 million shares valued at N193.02 million. Sterling Bank followed with a volume of 34.03 million shares worth N41.17 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 32.51 volume of shares valued at N316.05 million.

Transcorp Hotels exchanged 29.26 million shares worth N37.64 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 12.53 million shares valued at N124.85 million.

The total volume of shares traded on the exchange rose from 311.46 million shares on Friday to 319.40 million shares worth N3.05 billion, this was traded in 4,091 deals as against 3,735 deals recorded in the last session.

 

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