International Breweries, Dangote Cement lift NSE Index by 0.34%

Major blue chip companies, on Wednesday, posted gains on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to sustain the market momentum for the second consecutive day.
International Breweries led the gainers’ table with a gain of N4.20 to close at N45.20 per share.
Dangote Cement came second with a growth of N2 to close at N231 and NASCON inched 46k to close at N15.98 per share.
Cadbury appreciated by 40k to close at N10.75, while FBN Holdings added 12k to close at N7.19 per share.
Consequently, the All-Share Index grew by 125.4 points or 0.34 per cent to close at 37,138.97 against 37,013.57 achieved on Tuesday.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.810 trillion inched N43 billion or 0.34 per cent to close at N12.853 trillion.
Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., said that the market growth was as a result of last minutes value gain posted by Dangote Cement.
Omordion said that investing confidence in the market was due to improved fundamentals of some companies’ earnings and not the proposed 2018 budget.
On the other hand, 7UP recorded the highest loss to lead the losers’ table, dropping by 60k to close at N84.40 per share.
Flour Mills trailed with a loss of 50k to close at N34 and Zenith Bank shed 22k to close at N25.58 per share.
Nigerian Breweries was down by 21k to close at N143.89 and Redstar Express depreciated by 18k to close at N4.80 per share.
However, the volume of shares traded dipped by 36.59 per cent with an exchange of 193.48 million shares valued at N1.81 billion transacted in 3,904 deals.
This was in contrast with a total of 305.17 million shares worth N2.91 billion traded in 4,274 deals on Tuesday.
Diamond Bank from the banking industry was the most active in volume terms, exchanging 36.28 million shares valued at N43.61 million.
FBN Holdings followed with an account of 35.18 million shares worth N248.77 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 19.45 million shares valued at N32.95 million.
FCMB Group exchanged 17.45 million shares worth N20.89 million and AIICO Insurance sold a total of 9.47 million shares valued at N5.10 million.