Equities market opens August with N30bn growth
By Kayode Tokede
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) stock market opened trading for the month of August on Monday with a growth of N30 billion.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N20.083 trillion increased by N30 billion or 0.15 per cent to close at N20.113 trillion.
Also, the All-Share Index inched higher by 57.64 points or 0.15 per cent to close at 38,604.72 from 38,547.08 achieved on Friday.
Analysing by sectors, the Oil & Gas (-0.6 per cent), Industrial Goods (-0.6 per cent), Consumer Goods (-0.4 per cent) and Insurance (-0.3 per cent) indices recorded declines while the Banking (+0.6 per cent) index gained.
The positive performance of the market was driven by price appreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; MTN Nigeria Communications, Julius Berger, Unilever Nigeria, NASCON Allied Industries and NPF Microfinance Bank.
Julius Berger led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 8.89 per cent to close at N24.50 per share.
NPF Microfinance Bank followed with 8 per cent to close at N1.89, while Regency Alliance Insurance went up by 7.14 per cent to close at 45k per share.
Linkage Assurance rose by 6.67 per cent to close at 64k, while Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 5.41 per cent to close at 39k per share.
On the other hand, Eterna led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent to close at N6.39 per share.
Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with a decline of 9.71 per cent to close at N1.58, while Tripple Gee & Company lost 9.09 per cent to close at 90k per share.
Dangote Sugar Refinery lost 5.41 per cent to close at N17.50, while Lafarge Africa shed 5.02 per cent to close at N21.75 per share.
However, the total volume of trades traded dipped 36.9 per cent to 244.29 million shares valued at N1.91 billion exchanged in 4,609 deals.
This was against a total of 387.13 million shares worth N3.82 billion traded in 4,700 deals on Friday.
Transcorp topped the activity chart with 40.26 million shares valued at N40.01 billion.
C&I Leasing followed with 26.09 million shares worth N12.26 million, while FCMB Group traded 17.72 million shares valued at N55.72 million.
Oando traded 11.76 million shares valued at N57.24 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 8.22 million shares worth N2.19 million.
Analysts at Cordros research, in a weekly report stated that, “We believe investors will digest the flurry of earnings released this week to gauge the extent of improvement in company’s fundamentals given the tepid recovery in macroeconomic conditions.
“As a result, we expect portfolio rebalancing activities into cyclical stocks and positioning in dividend-paying stocks to shape market performance in the week ahead.
“With the MPC meeting out of the way, we believe developments in the macroeconomic landscape and corporate actions will shape the direction of the local bourse.”
