Buy Pressure on Airtel Africa, Flour Mills, Others Lift ASI by 1.21%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) appreciated by 1.21 per cent on the back of renewed interests in some value equities that could deliver more return on investment in the mid-term.

Investors continued to buy shares of Airtel Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Lafarge Africa and a few others and this pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) higher by 495.98 points to 41,584.94 points from 41,088.96 points and lifted the market capitalisation by N259 billion to N21.754 trillion from N21.495 trillion.

Business Post reports that the participation of investors yesterday was better as the volume of shares transacted grew by 40.47 per cent to 467.9 million units from 333.1 million units, the value of stocks traded rose by 110.79 per cent to N5.6 billion from N2.6 billion, while the number of deals increased by 6.21 per cent to 5,990 deals from 5,640 deals.

Transcorp remained the most active stock yesterday with the sale of 45.9 million shares worth N50.6 million and was trailed by Axa Mansard Insurance, which sold 34.7 million equities valued at N48.6 million.

Japaul exchanged 29.4 million stocks for N23.0 million, Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 26.4 million shares valued at N7.3 million, while Lasaco Assurance exchanged 25.8 equities worth N10.8 million.

It was observed that the consumer goods sector gained 0.54 per cent yesterday, the insurance space rose by 0.40 per cent, the industrial goods counter appreciated by 0.25 per cent, while the energy and banking sectors declined by 5.31 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively.

At the close of transactions, Airtel Africa topped the gainers’ chart, gaining N65 to close at N920 per share. Flour Mills grew by N2 to trade at N34 per unit, Lafarge Africa rose by N1 to sell for N27.50 per share, MTN Nigeria appreciated by 90 kobo to quote at N170.90 per unit, while Fidson gained 40 kobo to settle at N5.05 per share.

On the flip side, Seplat led the losers’ chart after it lost N50 to close at N490 per share, Zenith Bank depreciated by 25 kobo to sell at N26.25 per unit, Cutix declined by 16 kobo to N2.10 per share, Cadbury Nigeria fell by 15 kobo to N9.60 per unit, while Africa Prudential lost 13 kobo to quote at N7 per share.