Nigerian Stock Exchange Watch: Consumer Stocks Take the Market to 7th Day Consecutive Gains

Market observers have to be pleased with the current state of affairs at the Nigerian bourse. The All Share Index gained again today for the seventh consecutive day.

On the back of a strong performance by the Consumer Goods sector, the ASI appreciated by 0.54% to close at 21,181.42.

The banking sub-sector saw UBA shed close to the full points today, dropping by 495 points in what appears to be a sign of things to come as panicky investors dump the shares for the long term investors to take their positions.

Also slacking in trading today were Union Bank (-4.95%), Wema (-3.85%), GTBank (-1.09%), First Bank (-1.78%), and Access (-1.97%).

On the flip side Sterling picked up close to the maximum points, appreciating by 495 points.  Stanbic stock also put up a respectable performance, gaining 341 points. Top tier Zenith was up by 176 points, even as Skye and Fidelity picked up marginal points of 0.71 and 0.68 points respectively.

Across the consumer goods sector, Guinness and Nigerian Breweries led the breweries sub sector with a 500 and 157 basis points appreciation.

The Food and Beverages space was commandeered by Nestle stock which gained 5%. Dangote Flour was also up, picking up 498 points. Cadbury Nigeria stock was a not so distant third as it appreciated by 4.95%.

Nascon (-1.46%), Dangote Sugar (-1.75%) and Honeywell Flour  (-0.82%) saw their stock prices depreciate in today’s session.

The Insurance sub-sector was bullish as Custodian (+4.52%), GTAssure (+4.96%), and Continental Re (+3.7%) all gained.

The stock market saw volumes of transactions increase by 49% as close to 300 million shares were traded. The value of the shares at N 2.82 billion increased by 57% from yesterday’s session.

Leading the market in price appreciation today:

Trailing the market were:

The activity levels were dominated by Financial Services Stock: