Large Cap Stocks in Consumer Goods, Banking Sectors Lift NSE Index by 0.10%

By Dipo Olowookere

Gains recorded by stocks in the Consumer Goods and Banking sectors put a halt to the activities of bears on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in the past few days.

Business Post reports that the on Tuesday, the market closed in the green territory after series of losses despite the strong Q1 2018 performances posted by listed companies on the NSE.

However, the market reacted positively to the Q1 2018 results posted by Dangote Cement on Tuesday, leaving the stock market to close 0.10 percent higher with the year-to-date returns expanding to 6.69 percent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) went up yesterday by 38.85 points to close at 40,802.78 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N14.04 billion to settle at N14.739 trillion.

At the close of transactions on Tuesday, all the sector indices finished green except the NSEINS10 and the NSEIND, which went down by 0.35 percent and 0.38 percent respectively.

However, the NSEBNK10, NSEFBT10, and NSEOILG5 appreciated by 0.51 percent, 0.72 percent, and 0.85 percent respectively.

Business Post’s Dipo Olowookere reports that the market breadth closed flat yesterday with 26 price gainers and losers.

Nestle Nigeria emerged the highest price gainer after adding N71.10k to its share value to settle at N1493.60k per share.

It was followed by Forte Oil, which increased by N4 to close at N43.30k per share, and Zenith Bank, which went up by 70k to end at N27.90k per share.

Dangote Sugar advanced by 45k to finish at N21 per share, while Dangote Flour jerked up by 35k to end at N13.70k per share.

Conversely, it turned out to be a bad day for Nigerian Breweries as its shares went down by N4.70k to close at N125 per share.

Conoil depreciated by N1.65k to finish at N31.80k per share, while Julius Berger declined by N1.35k to close at N25.65k per share.

Furthermore, GlaxoSmithKline depreciated by N1.20k to finish at N23.30k per share, while Stanbic IBTC decreased by N1.10k to wrap the day at N48.90k per share.

It was observed that despite the gains recorded by the stock market yesterday, the volume and value of trades broadly went down.

A total of 246.6 million shares worth N3.2 billion were traded by investors on Tuesday in 4,918 deals compared with the 530.2 million equities transacted on Monday in 4,567 deals valued at N7.8 billion.