Nestle Plc: stock appreciates in Lagos

The market indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday appreciated further with the All-Share Index crossing 27,000 market in spite of the strike by a faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

The All-Share Index which opened at 26,763.83 rose by 264.41 points or 0.99 per cent to close at 27,028.24, amid gains by blue chips.

Similarly, the market capitalisation inched N91 billion or 0.99 per cent to close at N9.283 trillion.

The upturn was largely boosted by capital appreciation recorded by GT Bank, Zenith Bank, Lafarge Africa, Flour Mills, Selpat, UACN and Nestle.

Nestle led the gainers’ table, growing by N7.50 to close at N732.50 per share.

Seplat came second with a gain of N5 to close at N355, while Lafarge increased by N2.50 to close at N76 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank rose by N1.43 to close at N20.97, while Julius Berger advanced by N1.29 to close at N45 per share.

Conversely, Guinness topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N3.90 to close at N95.10 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N2 to close at N125.50, while Unilever Nigeria dipped N1.60 to close at N30.41 per share.

NCR depreciated by N1.01 to close at N9.46 and Union Homes savings and Loans shed 33k to close at N3.17 per share.

498.78 million shares valued at N2.73 billion were exchanged in 4,765 deals.

This was in contrast to a turnover of 670.80 million shares worth N2.06 billion exchanged in 3,976 deals on Wednesday.

Diamond Bank was the toast of investors, exchanging 99.69 million shares valued at N174.28 million.

FBN Holdings followed with 73.68 million shares worth N269.04 million, while Continental Insurance traded 44.96 million shares valued at N46.32 million.

Zenith Bank sold 36.76 million shares worth N604.34 million, while Transcorp exchanged 36.44 million shares worth N41.91 million.