Equities Begin Week With N7.5bn Gain

By Dipo Olowookere

Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) kicked off on a positive note on Monday as Airtel Africa prepare for its eventual listing today after the exercise was abruptly postponed last Friday. The market closed 0.06 percent higher yesterday to shrink the year-to-date loss to 6.82 percent.

The market capitalisation was up at the session by N7.5 billion to settle at N12.909 trillion, with the All-Share Index (ASI) increasing by 16.92 points to finish at 29,287.87 points.

The marginal gains recorded on Monday were boosted by the price appreciation printed by 17 stocks led by Flour Mills, which rose by N1.50k to close at N16.50k per share.

It was followed by NASCON, which appreciated by 50 kobo to end at N15.50k per unit, and MTN Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria and Red Star Express, which rose by 45 kobo each to close at N129.45k, N11.45k and N5.40k respectively.

At the other side, Total Nigeria led the losers’ chart after going down by N8 to close for the day at N140 per unit.

It was trailed by Forte Oil, which went down by N2.70k to finish at N24.30k per share, and GlaxoSmithKline, which fell by N1 to settle at N9.20k per share.

Nigerian Breweries depreciated by 40 kobo to finish at N60 per share, while GTBank declined by 15 kobo to end at N28.85k per unit.

A look at the performance of the sectors showed all finished green, with the exception of the banking and oil & gas, which went down by 0.09 percent and 1.44 percent respectively.

The consumer goods sector closed 0.20 percent higher, insurance finished 0.96 percent higher and industrial ended 0.02 percent higher.

Though the volume of shares traded by investors yesterday went down by 27.52 percent, the value rose by 24.05 percent.

A total of 216.3 million worth N2.3 billion exchanged hands on Monday in contrast to the 298.4 million units valued at N1.8 billion transacted last Friday.

Wapic Insurance led the activity log on Monday with a total turnover of 84.9 million equities worth N34 million.

FBN Holdings traded 16.2 million valued at N100.5 million, while Zenith Bank sold 14.7 million units for N282.3 million.

Mutual Benefit transacted 14.2 million equities worth N2.9 million, while UBA exchanged 13.5 million shares valued at N81.9 million.