Equity Market Closes Strong as MPC Meeting Begins

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on Monday on a positive note as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) kicked off in Abuja today.

The market finished strong, extending the bullish sessions to two.

While the all-share index improved by 7.83 points or 0.03 percent, the market capitalisation increased by N2.7 billion.

Business Post correspondent reports that the all-share index ended at 26,231.37 points and the market capitalisation closed at N9.025 trillion.

A total of 19 stocks closed in the green territory at the wrap of trading activities on the floor of the NSE, while 15 recorded drop in prices.

Total, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria, GlaxoSmithKline and Oando Plc were the top five advancing equities at the market today, while Nestle, Forte Oil, Cadbury, GTBank and Honeywell Flour were the top five depreciating stocks.

It was reported that Total led the gainers’ chart after appreciating by N6 to close at N287 per share, while Nigerian Breweries gained N2.44k to end at N144.50k per share.

Also, Guinness rose by N1.50k to finish at N68.50k per share, GlaxoSmithKline improved by 25k to close at N16 per share and Oando added 18k to end at N4.75k per share.

However, Nestle shed N25 to top the losers’ table closing at N720 per share, while Forte Oil trailed after dropping N2.62k to end at N63.88k per share.

Cadbury lost 13k to finish at N9 per share, GTBank went down by 6k to close at N23.90k per share and Honeywell Flour, Business Post reports, also crashed by 6k to end at N1.18k per share.

Investors today bought and sold a total of 228.6 million shares valued at N2.6 billion and were executed in 3,228 deals.

This is in contrary to the 203 million shares that exchanged hands on the floor of the NSE last Friday in 2,804 deals at N2.02 billion.