Nigerian Stocks Sustain Growth on Positive Corporate Earnings

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained its growth on Tuesday as more companies continue to churn out positive results for the first half of this year.

Business Post reports that the gains recorded by consumer goods stocks lifted the market yesterday, though slightly by 0.19 percent with the year-to-date returns closing at -3.20 percent.

While the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 71.73 points to close at 37,017.78 points, the market capitalisation appreciated by N26 billion to finish at N13.410 trillion.

However, the market breadth ended negative on Tuesday with a total of 21 price gainers and 26 price losers.

Leading the price gainers’ chart was Nestle Nigeria, which went up by N98 to settle at N1600 per share.

It was followed by Seplat, which rose by N16.50k to close at N704 per share, and CCNN, which increased by N1 to finish at N31 per share.

Nigerian Breweries went up by 50 kobo to end at N105 per share, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 11 kobo to close at N1.98 per share.

On the flip side, it was a poor day for Okomu Oil as its shares went down by N8.30k to close at N74.70k per share.

Beta Glass went down by N1.05k to finish at N76.95k per share, while PZ Cussons fell by 90 kobo to settle at N15.10k per share.

Zenith Bank lost 70 kobo to finish at N23 per share, while Flour Mills also went down by 70 kobo to close at N28.70k per share.

Business Post reports further that at the close of business yesterday, the activity chart was led by the Financial Services sector after recording the sale of 189 million shares at N2.6 billion.

It was followed by the Consumer Goods sector, which transacted 18.8 million equities for N1.6 billion.

GTBank was the most traded stock at the market with a total of 39.7 million shares sold for N1.6 billion.

UBA followed with 28 million shares traded for N272.5 million, while Sterling Bank exchanged 26.9 million equities worth N37.9 million.

Furthermore, FBN Holdings traded 23.1 million shares valued at N232.5 million, while United Capital exchanged 10.4 million for N32.7 million.

At the close of transactions, a total of 245 million shares were sold for N4.5 billion in 5,943 deals compared with the 319.4 million equities traded for N3.1 billion in the previous day.