Dangote Flour Lifts Equity Market by 0.14%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on a positive note on Monday after news of Olam presenting a revised bid for the acquisition of Dangote Flour Plc hit the market.

The equity market, which was heading south at mid-day, reversed the losses to close 0.14 percent higher to shrink the year-to-date loss to 11.97 percent.

At the end of the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 38.92 points to finish at 27,669.38 points, while the market capitalisation appreciated by N19 billion to settle at N13.484 trillion.

Despite the gains yesterday, sentiments at the market remained mixed as the volume of shares transacted by investors improved by 73.64 percent, while the value decreased by 70.65 percent.

A total of 280.7 million equities worth N1.4 billion were traded yesterday compared with the 161.7 million stocks valued at N4.8 billion exchanged in the previous session.

Sterling Bank was the most active stock at the market yesterday, closing with the turnover of 198.7 million units sold for N436.7 million.

It was followed by Zenith Bank, which transacted 19.4 million shares valued at N353.9 million, and Dangote Flour, which exchanged 7.5 million equities worth N152.2 million.

Ecobank traded 7.2 million shares at the market on Monday for N51.9 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 6 million equities worth N33 million.

On the price movement chart, Dangote Flour took charge of the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of N1.85k to finish at N20.35k per unit.

MTN Nigeria gained N1.25k to end at N128.25k per share, CCNN improved by 65 kobo to close at N13 per unit, NCR appreciated by 50 kobo to settle at N5.80k per share, while BOC Gas also increased its share price by 50 kobo to quote at N5.57k per unit.

On the flip side, Ecobank topped the losers’ table after going down by 80 kobo to finish at N7.20k per share, while Dangote Sugar followed with a price depreciation of 20 kobo to end at N9.80k per unit.

FBN Holdings also went down by 20 kobo to finish at N5.40k per unit, NPF Microfinance Bank depreciated by 11 kobo to exchange at N1.18k per share, while Access Bank fell by 10 kobo to sell at N6.10k per share.