31 July 2018 ( Lagos ): The incoming H1'18/Q2'18 results have made investors sitting at the edge of their seats, as the effect of the scorecard on the respective stocks are quite intense. Although the general sentiment of the market has been quite positive from the past week, thanks to more than satisfactory results of the blue-chip firms. Today, it seems like the huge surges in (
NESTLE ) by 6.52% and the overlooked insurance sector saved the day today. Thanks to them, the ASI gained 71 points, marginally rising by 0.19%, just at the nth hour.
Starting with the gainers, (
EQUITYASUR ) gained 10%, topping the list, closely followed by (
PRESTIGE ) that went up by 9.62%, (
MBENEFIT ) that surged by 9.09% and (
NEIMETH ) which rose by 8.7%.
The Banking sector was the biggest loser of the day, with all the high and medium weight stocks closing leading laggards, the sector witnessed declines in (
ZENITHBANK ) by 2.95%, (
GUARANTY ) by 1.11%, (
UBA ) by 2.55%, (
STANBIC ) by 0.3%, (
ACCESS ) by 0.5%, ( JAIZBANK ) by 9.38% and finally (
DIAMONDBNK ) by 10% which topped the losers list, by its exceptional performance, of course, the minuscule upticks in (
FBNH ) by 0.5% and (
ETI ) by 0.24% were left neglected.
In the oil and gas sector, (
OKOMUOIL ) also lost a lot of weight and dropped a massive 10%, and was joined by (
ETERNA ) which dipped by 1.64% and (
JAPAULOIL ) which went down by 3.33%. These declines also weighed down the 2.4% increase in (
SEPLAT )
In the industrial goods sector, (
CCNN ) rose by 3.33%.
Saving the best for the last, the consumer goods sector was saved by upticks in sector hulks -(
NESTLE ) by 6.52% and (
NB ) by 0.48%, following brilliant Q2'18 results by Nestle( reporting N 12.8 billion PAT, 57% increase from Q2'2017) , and "meh" results by Nigerian breweries ( N 8.2 billion PAT, 33% decline from Q2'17) . But sadly, that where the upticks ended. (
DANGSUGAR ) fell down by 0.59%, (
FLOURMILL ) went down by 2.38% ( Q2'18 reported PAT of N 3.6 billion, down by 19% from Q2'17), (
DANGFLOUR ) lost 1.12%, and (
PZ ) also declined by 5.62%. In terms of number of shares traded (
GUARANTY ) was the highest with 39.6 million shares traded, followed by (
UBA ) - 27.99 million, ( SETRLNBANK ) - 26.9 million and (
FBNH ) - 23.08 million.
Reporting for EasyKobo on Tuesday, 31 July 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria