Equities weighed down by Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries as ₦19bn loss was recorded

Nigerian equities traded on a tight balance of bargain-hunting and profit-taking yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), but losses by two highly capitalised companies-Lafarge Africa and Nigerian Breweries, weighed down the overall market position.

With 19 gainers and losers each, the market appeared to be on a momentary pause after the recent streak of rallies with investors looking up to third quarter earnings of companies to determine the next major move of the market. Many companies indicated yesterday that they have scheduled the board meeting to consider their third quarter earnings, usually the last process before the release of the earnings reports for non-financial companies.

Lafarge Africa, Nigeria’s second largest cement company, which had indicated a rights issue, declined by ₦2.39 to close at ₦54.50. Nigerian Breweries- Nigeria’s second most capitalised quoted company, followed with a loss of ₦1.10 to close at ₦168.90.

With these, the aggregate market value of all quoted companies dipped by ₦19 billion from its opening value of ₦12.678 trillion to close at ₦12.659 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the main index that tracks share prices at the Exchange, dropped marginally by 0.15 per cent to close at 36,776.60 points as against its opening index of 36,831.93 points. The average year-to-date return slipped marginally to 36.85 per cent.

Total turnover however stood above average with the exchange of 353.19 million shares valued at ₦3.26 billion in 4,201 deals. The three most active stocks were Diamond Bank, with 215.76 million shares; Fidelity Bank, 15 million shares and FCMB Group, with 14.59 million shares.

Other top losers were C & I Leasing, with a drop of 18 kobo to close at ₦1.74; FBN Holdings, which lost 6.0 kobo to close at ₦6.08 while Diamond Bank and Custodian and Allied declined by 5.0 kobo each to close at ₦1 and ₦3.60 respectively.

On the upside, Flour Mills of Nigeria, which announced ongoing arrangements for a supplementary capital raising, led the contrarian stocks with a gain of ₦1.13 to close at ₦29. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria followed with a gain of 86 kobo to close at ₦9.32. PZ Cussons Nigeria rose by 50 kobo to close at ₦23.74. Cadbury Nigeria added 40 kobo to close at ₦10.40 while Northern Nigeria Flour Mills chalked up 27 kobo to close at ₦5.77 per share.

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