The stock market sustained its bullish trend yesterday following high demand for fast moving consumer goods, insurance and banking stocks. Having gained 1.85 per cent last week, some level of profit taking was expected as trading resumed for the week yesterday. However, it appears investors are delaying their profit taking as bargain hunting remained high.
Consequently, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index appreciated by 0.70 per cent to close at 26,418.33, while market capitalisation added N63.2 billion to close at N9.1 trillion.
Yesterday’s performance reduced the year-to-date decline to 1.70 per cent. The market recorded 26 price gainers, while 12 stocks depreciated. Although bellwether stocks such as Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, GTBank Plc were among the price gainers, Oando Plc led the chart with 10.0 per cent, trailed by Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc with 9.7 per cent. Continental Reinsurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc chalked up 9.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively among others.
Oando Plc last week recorded a revenue of N138.4 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017, showing a jump of 116 per cent from N63.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2016, while profit stood at N1.7 billion.
The Group Chief Executive, Oando Plc, Mr. Wale Tinubuhad said: “Following a successful restructuring in 2016, we are pleased with our Q1 2017 results which reflect a return to normalcy and growth in spite of continued security challenges, economic headwinds and a fluctuation in crude prices.â€
He added that the company has continued to reduce its net debt, standing at N225.9 billion as at March 31, 2017, compared with N316.6 billion as at March 2016.
Conversely, Champion Breweries Plc led the price losers with 4.6 per cent, followed by Jaiz Bank Plc with a decline of 4.5 per cent. African Prudential Plc and Dangote Flour Mills Plc shed 3.3 per cent and 2.3 per cent in that order.
In terms of sectoral performance, all indices advanced except the NSE Industrial Goods Index that shed 0.02 per cent following price loss by Cement Company of Northern Nigeria(-1.9 per cent). The NSE Consumer Goods Index recorded the highest gain (+2.0) on account of buy sentiment in Nestle (+3.4 per cent), Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc (+9.7 per cent) and Nigerian Breweries Plc (+2.7 per cent).
Similarly, the NSE Insurance Index went up by 1.8 per cent on the back of price appreciations in Continental (+9.4 per cent) and AIICO (+7.6 per cent) while the NSE Oil & Gas and NSE Banking indices appreciated 1.4 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.
