Nigerian equities staged a modest recovery yesterday as large-cap stocks in industrial and food manufacturing sectors rallied the overall market position to net capital gain of N10 billion.
Benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded their first gain this week after Nigeria’s largest quoted company, Dangote Cement and largest food manufacturing company, Flour Mills of Nigeria rallied substantial gains.
The All Share Index (ASI)- the value-based common index that tracks all share prices at the NSE, rose by 0.1 per cent from its opening index of 21,100.54 points to close at 21,121.20 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities improved from its opening value of N10.997 trillion to close at N11.007 trillion. With these, the negative average year-to-date return improved to -21.3 per cent.
With 19 decliners to seven advancers, most sectoral indices closed in the negative, underlining the precarious bearish sentiments that had marked share pricing in recent period. The NSE Banking Index declined by 2.2 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 1.9 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index dipped by 0.8 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index closed flat. The NSE Industrial Goods Index was the lone gainer with a gain of 2.4 per cent, driven largely by 9.9 per cent increase in share price of flagship Dangote Cement.
Dangote Cement led the gainers with a gain of N11.60 to close at N128.40. Flour Mills of Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.05 to close at N20.20 while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria added 40 kobo to close at N4.80.
On the negative side, MTN Communications Nigeria led the losers with a drop of N5.60 to close at N92.80. Nigerian Breweries followed with a loss of N2.30 to close at N22.50. Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Zenith Bank lost 40 kobo each to close at N23.90 and N11 respectively while International Breweries declined by 35 kobo to close at N5 per share.
“Despite today’s positive performance, we expect the equities market to close the week on a bearish note as the economy reels from the disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic,” Afrinvest Securities stated.
