MTN Nigeria, 12 Others Lift Stock Market by 0.36%

By Dipo Olowookere

Activities at the local stock market closed bullish on Tuesday, thanks to the gains posted by MTN Nigeria and 12 other stocks. The market closed 0.36 percent higher to expand the year-to-date gain to 3.84 percent.

During the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 99.71 percent to 27,871.90 points from 27,772.19 points, while the market capitalisation jumped by N52 billion to N14.516 trillion from N14.464 trillion.

Business Post reports that UBA was the most active stock at the market yesterday, trading 49.5 million units worth N381.7 million, while GTBank exchanged 41.4 million units valued at N1.2 billion.

Zenith Bank sold 30.2 million shares worth N604.8 million, Japaul transacted 29.6 million stocks valued at N7.7 million, while Ecobank traded 27.7 million equities for N192.8 million.

In all, investors traded a total of 276.3 million shares worth N3.7 billion in 3,690 deals on Tuesday compared with the 200.2 million equities valued at N1.9 billion traded in 3,487 deals on Monday. This indicated that the volume of shares traded during the session rose by 38.03 percent, while the value increased 92.81 percent, with the number of deals rising by 5.82 percent.

Despite the rebound witnessed at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday, the market breadth closed negative with 13 price gainers and 17 price losers.

MTN Nigeria led the gainers’ chart after adding N5 to its share price to close at N120 per unit, while UAC Nigeria trailed with a price appreciation of 80 kobo to sell at N9.30 per share.

Lafarge Africa gained 45 kobo to trade at N15.50 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria rose by 40 kobo to quote at N9.40 per unit, while Zenith Bank improved by 15 kobo to settle at N20 per share.

At the other side, MRS Oil topped the losers’ log after losing N1.50 to trade at N13.80 per share, while International Breweries lost 75 kobo to sell at N7.75 per unit.

BUA Cement dropped 70 kobo to finish at N35.30 per share, Dangote Sugar moved down by 60 kobo to N12.80 per share, while C&I Leasing fell by 45 kobo to quote at N4.95 per unit.

Apart from the energy sector, which rose by 0.05 percent yesterday, every other sector declined, with the consumer goods emerging as the most hit with a loss of 1.29 percent. The industrial goods index fell by 0.76 percent, the insurance index went down by 0.55 percent, while the banking index decreased by 0.35 percent.