Friday, December 17, 2010

Proposed reward drives bottling company’s shares up

Following the cash payment which the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), bottlers of Coca Cola and other drinks, proposed to pay its shareholders as compensation for the planned delisting exercise, the demand for the stock has increased, hence, pushing up its value significantly.

The price, which was N30.03 per share before the announcement was made on Tuesday, now stands at N34.75 per share as at Thursday, representing an increase of 15.72 percent in two days.
While some market watchers suggested that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) should have placed the company’s share on “technical suspension” to protect price movement on the stock, the spokesperson for the NSE, Wole Tokede, said he was not sure if the Exchange is considering that option.
The management of the NBC had, on Tuesday, notified the Exchange of its “proposed scheme of arrangement between the company and its members, involving a cancellation of part of its share capital.”
The proposed scheme envisaged a cash payment of N43 per NBC share as consideration to the minority shareholders.
Market declines
Meanwhile, the Exchange market capitalisation of the 201 first-tier equities closed on Thursday at N7.807 trillion after opening the day at N7.830 trillion, reflecting 0.29 percent decline or N23 billion losses. The market had gained N65 billion after Wednesday’s trading session.
The NSE All-Share Index also lost 0.29 percent or 72.26 units on Wednesday’s figures of 24,511.04 basis points, to close yesterday at 24,438.78. Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Dangote Sugar, and United Bank for Africa were the most traded stocks on Thursday.
Gainers increase
A total of 34 stocks appreciated in price on Thursday, higher than the 25 gainers recorded the previous day, while 28 stocks depreciated in value; same as recorded on Wednesday. UAC Nigeria and Nigerian Bottling Company topped the price gainers’ table with an increase of N1.80 and N1.65 on their opening prices of N36.16 and N33.10 per share respectively. Ashaka Cement and Flour Mills Nigeria followed in the chart with an increase of N1.22 and N1.21, to close at N25.72 and N68.01 per share.
On the losers’ side, Dangote Cement and MRS Oil led the price losers’ chart with a loss of N4.25 and N3.50, to close at N120.25 and N66.56 per share respectively. Nigerian Breweries and Okomu Oil followed with a decrease of 84 kobo and 69 kobo on their initial prices of N76.00 and N13.90 per share respectively.
Active subsectors
Trading activities in the Banking subsector maintained lead as the most active subsectors with 165.981 million shares valued at N1.586 billion. Deals in shares of the four banks mentioned in the most traded stocks boosted volume in this subsector.
The Insurance subsector followed with 30.424 million shares valued at N21.430 million. The Food/Beverages subsector was third in the activity chart with 26.902 million shares worth N465.808 million.




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