NSE LIVE! Breweries Sustain Equities’ Rally With N64b Gain

Nigeria’s two largest breweries-Nigerian Breweries and Guinness Nigeria, led the bullish run to sustain the rally at the Nigerian stock market on Wednesday as investors remained optimistic on the positive influence of expected first half results of large-cap financial institutions.
The two main indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange-the All Share Index (ASI) and total market value, closed with net capital gain of N64 billion, equivalent to day-on-day average gain of 0.50 per cent. The positive market position was driven considerably by gains recorded by breweries, which led the consumer goods sector to above average performance.
Nigerian Breweries-Nigeria’s largest brewer and second most capitalised company at the Exchange, led the rally with a gain of N4.24 to close at N171.25. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N3.32 to close at N69.87. The price appreciation by Guinness Nigeria further enhanced the premium on the brewer’s rights issue, proving renouncing shareholders opportunities to trade their renounced rights at higher prices.
Guinness Nigeria is offering 684.49 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N58 per share to existing shareholders on the basis of five new shares for every 11 shares held as at the close of business on March 15, 2017.
The ASI-the benchmark index for the equities market, rose from its opening index of 36,720.62 points to close at 36,905.06 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also rose from N12.656 trillion to close at N12.720 trillion. Average year-to-date return climbed to 37.32 per cent.
Most sectoral indices also closed positive. The NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 1.9 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index rose by 1.6 per cent while the NSE Banking Index inched up by 0.5 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 2.4 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index dropped by 0.5 per cent.

There were 31 gainers against 18 losers. Other top gainers included Lafarge Africa, which rose by N2.75 to close at N57.75. Nestle Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.42 to close at N1,026.42. Flour Mills of Nigeria rose by N1.20 to close at N29.20 while PZ Cussons Nigeria appreciated by 83 kobo to close at N24.98 per share.
Total turnover stood at 251.01 million shares worth N3.78 billion in 4,047 deals. The most active stocks were Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, with 34.78 million shares; Fidelity Bank, 29.96 million shares and FBN Holdings, with 28.81 million shares.
On the downside, oil and gas stocks led the losers. Seplat Petroleum Development Company led with a drop of N17.90 to close at N470.10. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a drop of N12.35 to close at N240.65. Total Nigeria lost N8.50 to close at N261.50. Okomu Oil Palm dipped by N3.80 to close at N72.23 while Presco declined by N2.45 to close at N74.50 per share.
“We expect the positive trend in the market to be sustained in trading sessions while investors await the release of more half-year 2017 results – particularly from the Tier 1 banks – which are expected to be largely positive,” Afrinvest Securities stated.