Buying Pressure on Cement Stocks Expands NSE Index by 0.25%

By Dipo Olowookere

Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further closed positive for the fifth consecutive session on Tuesday after a 0.25 per cent growth when activities were wrapped up.

This was boosted by the buying pressure on cement stocks at the exchange, mainly BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa as the gains printed by the equities suppressed losses from banking shares.

They helped their sector, the industrial goods, close 1.10 per cent higher during the session, while the insurance sector appreciated by 1.62 per cent.

Business Post reports that the selling pressure on banking stocks crashed its index by 0.22 per cent yesterday, while the profit-taking in the consumer goods space reduced its index by 0.07 per cent, with the energy counter closing flat.

But the benchmark performance indicator, the All-Share Index (ASI), increased on Tuesday by 62.66 points to 25,291.78 points from 25,229.12 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N33 billion to N13.195 trillion from N13.162 trillion.

BUA Cement, which led the gainers’ chart yesterday, appreciated by N1.10 to finish at N40 per unit, while Julius Berger, which followed, gained 50 kobo to sell for N17 each.

Lafarge Africa improved its share price by 20 kobo to N11.70 per unit, Flour Mills rose by 20 kobo to N18.70 per share, while NEM Insurance grew by 18 kobo to N2.05 each.

On the flip side, Beta Glass led the losers’ chart with a price depreciation of N6.15 to close at N55.40 per share, while C&I Leasing went down by 40 kobo to N4 per unit.

May & Baker lost 30 kobo to trade at N2.73 each, Vitafoam depreciated by 30 kobo to sell for N5.15 per unit, while GTBank declined by 20 kobo to quote at N25 per share.

Transcorp has continued to witness huge activities around its stocks lately at the exchange and on Tuesday, the company was the most active on the activity chart, trading 94.9 million units of its shares valued at N52.3 million.

UBA transacted 33.2 million shares for N216.5 million, Wema Bank exchanged 14.6 million equities for N7.4 million, Zenith Bank traded 10.4 million stocks worth N176.5 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 9.6 million units valued at N11.3 million.

At the close of business yesterday, a total of 251.3 million stocks worth N1.2 billion were traded by investors in 3,713 deals compared with the 251.2 million units worth N2.4 billion transacted in 3,737 deals on Monday.