Naira stable at N364/$

By Babajide Komolafe

The naira Tuesday remained stable at N364 per dollar in the parallel market. Vanguard survey revealed that the parallel market exchange rate closed at N364 per dollar yesterday, same level as on Monday.

The stability was attributed to weak demand for dollar and increased supply due to dollar sale to
bureaux de change by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Also the Nigerian stock market on Tuesday maintained a bullish trend with the market capitalisation growing by N84 billion, lifted by gains from cement, breweries and beverages stocks.

The market capitalisation grew by N84 billion or 0.71 per cent to close at N11.887 trillion as against N11.803 trillion achieved on Monday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index rose to two-year of 34,375.60, appreciating by 240.50 points or 0.70 per cent compared to 34,135.10 recorded on Monday.

Julius Berger recorded the highest price gain to lead the gainers’ pack, increasing by N4.04 to close at N43.84 per share.

Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N3.97 to close at N213.97 and Nigerian Breweries garnered N3 to close at N168 per share.

Nestle also increased by N3 to close at N910, while International Breweries added N2.30 to close at N30.65 per share.

Market watchers attributed the improved performance to Index provider MSCI new weighting of Nigerian market on its frontier index to 7.9 per cent from 6.5 per cent.

They said that the new weighting boosted the confidence of foreign investors to the nation’s bourse.

On the other hand, Forte Oil topped the losers’ chart for the day, shedding N2.77 to close at N50.04 per share.

Glaxosmithkline trailed with a loss of N1.04 to close at N20.55 and Cadbury shed 70k to close at N14.25 per share.

Zenith International Bank declined by 42k to close at N22.08, while Oando depreciated by 37k to close at N7.65 per share.

Also the volume of shares traded dipped by 18.70 per cent with an exchange of 392.27 million shares valued at N4.23 billion transacted in 5,412 deals.

This was against the 482.52 million shares worth N5.68 billion achieved in 5,771 deals on Monday.

Transcorp drove the activity chart with a total of 58.05 million shares valued at N102.51 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 47.68 million shares worth N1.07 billion and Skye Bank traded 39.77 million shares valued at N32.01 million.

FBN Holdings sold 27.61 million shares worth N182.94 million, while Diamond Bank exchanged 27.38 million shares valued at N35.09 million.