Trading at the Nigerian equities market resumed on a bullish note yesterday as gains by few bellwether stocks lifted the market by 0.26 per cent. Although the market recorded more price losers than gainers, appreciation in the prices of Dangote Cement Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc made the market to close on a positive note.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index rose by 0.26 per cent to be at 27,316.52, while market capitalisation closed higher at N9.38 trillion compared with a fall of 0.12 per cent last Friday.
Nestle Nigeria led the gainers’ table with N5.02 to close at N825.02 per share, trailed by Dangote Cement with N2.99 to be at N181.00 per share. Nigerian Breweries Plc garnered N2.42, just as Unilever Nigeria Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc chalked up N1.75 and N1.72 respectively. Total Nigeria Plc gained N1.00, while Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Skye Bank Plc and WAPIC Insurance Plc added N0.15, N0.10, N0.03 and N0.02 in that order.
Conversely, Forte Oil Plc led other 22 price losers with N8.26 to close at N161.30 per share. CAP Plc trailed with a loss of N1.40 to close at N27.30 per share among others.
The NSE Industrial Goods Index led with the sectoral gainers with 1.9 per cent boosted by the 3.2 per cent rise in Lafarge Cement Plc and 1.7 per cent appreciation in Dangote Cement. This was followed by the NSE Consumer Goods Index, which rose 0.8 per cent on account of gains in Unilever (+5.0 per cent) and Nigerian Breweries Plc (+1.9 per cent).
Conversely, the NSE Oil & Gas Index closed negative, shedding 2.2 per cent on the back off sell-offs in Conoil Plc (-5.0 per cent) and Forte Oil Plc (-4.87 per cent). Similarly, the NSE Banking Index declined by 1.6 per cent as a result of losses by United Bank for Africa Plc (-5.0 per cent) and ETI (-4.9 per cent).
However, analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said despite the yesterday’s positive close, they expect bearish sentiments to resurface in today’s session “as activities (sectoral performance and negative market breadth) speak to less-than-significant improvement in investor appetite.”