NSE LIVE: Equities open with marginal gain

Nigerian equities opened this week with a tinge of bullishness as rallies within the highly capitalised stocks counterbalanced profit-taking transactions to leave the market with overall marginal gain of N8 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the common index that tracks share prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), inched up by 0.06 per cent to close at 36,484.30 points as against its opening index of 36,462.26 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also rose marginally from N12.619 trillion to close at N12.627 trillion. The average year-to-date return thus improved slightly to 35.76 per cent.

Sectoral indices showed a tight market. The NSE Banking Index rose by 0.07 per cent. The NSE Oil and Gas Index inched up by 0.01 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index closed flat. Meanwhile, the NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 1.5 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index dipped by 0.09 per cent.

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With 18 advancers to 21 decliners, the overall market position was boosted by gains recorded by high-cap stocks such as Total Nigeria, Forte Oil and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Total Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N7.25 to close at N240. Forte Oil followed with a gain of N2.70 to close at N40.99. Dangote Flour Mills chalked up 84 kobo to close at N9.08. Cadbury Nigeria rose by 45 kobo to close at N11 while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated appreciated by 44 kobo to close at N17.49.

Total turnover stood at 174.95 million shares valued at N1.82 billion in 3,401 deals. Banking stocks continued to dominate activities chart. The most active stocks were FBN Holdings, with 26.51 million shares; Diamond Bank, 26.24 million shares and United Bank for Africa (UBA), with 16.12 million shares.

On the negative side, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the decliners with a drop of N10 to close at N480. Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of N2 to close at N50. Nigerian Breweries dropped by 50 kobo to close at N151.50. Dangote Sugar Refinery declined by 30 kobo to close at N14.90 while Nascon Allied Industries and AXA Mansard Insurance slipped by 7.0 kobo to close at N15.87 and N1.95 respectively.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities attributed market performance to “investors seeking bargain positions in large cap stocks”, noting that such trend may continue in the next trading sessions as investors look beyond the third quarter earnings to full-year earnings.

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