NSE market capitalisation drops by N68b

•BUA backs  cement  price  cut  to N1,000 

Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened on Monday on a bearish trend with the market capitalisation dropping by N68 billion following losses by blue chip companies.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation lost N68 billion or 0.55 per cent to close at N12.368 trillion against N12.436 trillion achieved on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 206.39 basis points or 0.55 per cent to close lower at 37,343.85 compared with 37,550.24 recorded on Friday.

An analysis of price movement chart showed that Lafarge Wapco topped the losers’ chart with a loss of N5.49 to close at N104.50 per share.

7UP Bottling Nigeria trailed with N5 to close at N160 while Dangote Cement dipped N2.32 to close at N212.50 per share.

PZ industries dropped by N2.32 to close at N21.52 while Cadbury depreciated by N2.13 kobo to close at N40.65 per share.

On the other hand, Zenith Bank led the gainers’ table increasing by N1.06 to close at N22.26 per share.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with a gain of 25k to close at N5, while Skye Bank appreciated by 24k to close at N2.64 per share.

GT Bank grew by 20k to close at N25.20 while Vitafoam appreciated by 8k to close at N4.25 per share.

The financial service sector led the activities in volume terms, with an exchange of 175.28 million shares worth N1.02 billion accounted in 2,217 deals.

The banking sub-sector was most active in the sector, accounting for 93.25 million shares valued at N753.44 million traded in 1,288 deals.

Sterling Bank was the toast of investors in the sub-sector, with a turnover of 34.95 million shares worth N80.34 million transacted in 31 deals.

The conglomerates sector trailed with a total of 68.61 million shares valued N308.16 million achieved in 453 deals.

Investors’ staked N3.29 billion on 285.13 million shares transacted in 4,306 deals.

This was against a turnover of 330.76 million shares worth N3.55 billion traded in 4,562 deals on Friday.

Meanwhile, the chairman of BUA Group Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, has thrown his weight and support behind the Dangote cement reduction on the cost of unit bag of cement to N1000, a 40% price cut which was announced on Monday.

According to Rabiu, he has always been concerned about the high cost of cement in the country and has always advocated for a reduction of the cost so that more Nigerians can have access to the product and realize the dream of owning their own houses.

“It is against this background that I commend Alhaji Aliko Dangote for this patriotic initiative which is long overdue”, he said.

He further revealed that he held extensive discussion with Aliko on this issue in a telephone conversation last weekend and encouraged him on the initiative.

“What Aliko has done today is significant. I am very pleased about it because it would make the cost of the product more easily affordable to Nigerians. With the price being low, it will result in more consumers buying the product which will drive up volume and increase market share for all stakeholders. I hereby urge all cement producers to emulate Dangote and bring down the cost of cement. There is absolutely no reason for a bag of cement to cost so much. While it is true that we have infrastructural challenges it is not so much as to make the cost of cement so expensive”.

“On our part, I have already directed all our plants to follow suit and implement the new price regime. We still believe that more can be done to bring down the price even further for the benefit of Nigerians”.

“There is really no reason for cement to cost more then N1000 per bag, bearing in mind the massive success of the backward integration policy which implementation commenced 12 years ago, in which tens of billions of dollars has been directly and indirectly injected into the Nigerian cement industry with Dangote cement accounting for more of this. This has seen cement national productivity rising from a mere 2.2 million tonnes to over 30 million tonnes”, he said.

BUA group acquired the Edo State Cement Company three years ago and has pumped over $500 million in putting up a Greenfield, 3 million tonnes per annum plant deploying the latest technology in cement production. The plant is billed to be commissioned in the first quarter of next year from its 500, 000 tonnes capacity annual production to 3.5 million tonnes per annum.

Source: dailyindependent