Airtel, Dangote Cement, MRS top investors picks on Monday

Stocks like Airtel Nigeria, Dangote Cement, MRS, Julius Berger, and Lafarge Africa Plc were top on the list of investors’ picks on Monday, January 25, helping to push the value of listed equities higher by about N46billion.

The market recovered from last week’s bearing outing as 19 counters gained against 29 losers. This helped to push the year-to-date (YtD) returns to +2.03percent.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.21percent, from 41,001.99 points to 41,088.96 points while the value of listed equities increased by about N45billion from N21.449 trillion to N21.494trillion.

Despite the record positive, market watchers foresee the possibility of the index returning to a negative close on Tuesday following the bearish sectoral performances (particularly in consumer goods, insurance and Oil & Gas sectors) coupled with the negative market breadth recorded.

Read Also: Lack of bold reforms worsens investors nightmare

In 5,640 deals, stock buyers exchanged 333,096,795 units valued at N2.640billion. Transcorp, Mansard, Fidelity Bank, UBA and Zenith Bank were actively traded stocks.

Airtel led the advancers after its shares price moved from N851.8 to N855, adding N3.2 or 0.38percent, followed by Dangote Cement Plc which increased from N234 to N236, up by N2 or 0.85percent.

MRS rose from N11.2 to N12.3, adding N1.1 or 9.82percent. Julius Berger also increased from N18.9 to N19.5, up by 60kobo or 3.17percent, while Lafarge Africa rallied from N26 to N26.5, up 50kobo or 1.92percent.