Nigerian stocks were back to winning way on Monday after three trading days of consecutive decline as investors employed a risk-off approach to investment in a session that saw the benchmark index push up by 0.16 per cent, with banking stocks driving the climb.
FBN Holdings , Zenith and GTCO set the advance in motion, supported by food giant Nestle.
Nigeria’s biggest flour miller Flour Mills said on Monday it has entered pact with Honeywell Flour and FBN Holdings to acquire 71.69 and 5.06 per cent stakes, being the respective interests of the two companies in Honeywell.
The news shut Honeywell to the top of the gainers table as it appreciated 9.73 per cent, just short of 10 per cent, the maximum daily movement allowed by the bourse.
Market breadth, an indicator of investors’ sentiment towards trade, was neutral as 17 gainers were recorded compared to 17 losers.
“This week, we expect a sideways market, with a bias towards the bias, as we expect continued investor profit-taking on gains from the 9M earnings season,” said investors at brokerage firm United Capital in a note seen by Premium Times.
The all-share index jumped 67 basis points to 43,266.27, while market capitalisation rose to N22.58 trillion.
Year to date, the index is up 7.44 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS
Honeywell led gainers, appreciating by 9.73 per cent to close at N3.72. NEM went up 7.89 per cent to N2.05. FBN Holdings rose to N12.30, notching up 6.49 per cent in the process. Oando added 5.97 per cent to end today’s trade at N5.15. Champion Breweries completed the top 5, climbing by 3.83 per cent to N2.71. TOP FIVE LOSERS
The Initiates was the worst performing stock, declining by 9.76 per cent to close at N0.37. UPDC shed 9.74 per cent to close at N1.39. Ftn cOCOA fell to N0.40, losing 9.09 per cent. Japaul slid to N0.39, recording 4.88 per cent depreciation. FTN Cocoa closed at N0.20, going down by 4.76 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES
Altogether, 433.6 million shares estimated at N4.7 billion were traded in 4,811 deals.Mutual Benefits was the most active stock with 134 million units of its shares worth N32.6 million traded in 62 deals. FBN Holdings traded 88.7 million shares priced at N1.1 billion in 349 transactions. GTCO had 43.2 million shares valued at N1.1 billion traded in 443 deals. Sterling traded 25.5 million shares estimated at N37.7 million in 24 transactions. […]
