The Nation Newspaper

Category: Equities

  • Employers berate unlawful picketing

    The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has berated unlawful picketing of its yearly general meeting at the weekend by a group under the leadership of Joe Ajaero, who claims to be the leader of a splinter group of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

    Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) Director-General, Mr Olusegun Oshinowo, at a briefing noted that NECA had to postpone its AGM as the group barricaded the NECA’s House two entrances with a petrol tanker vehicle and a passenger bus, in spite of the presence of the Police, who behaved and acted helplessly.

    He said the group became unruly and unleashed mayhem on the entire neighbourhood while they did not allow anyone gain entrance or exit into the NECA House.

    Oshinowo drew attention to the negative implications of the descent of industrial relations practice and industrial harmony into disorderliness and the dispensation of lawlessness.

  • Fitch, Augusto rate GTBank, UBA high on strong earnings, asset quality

    Fitch International, one of the foremost global rating agencies, has again adjudged Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and upgraded its ratings for the two Nigerian leading banks, citing the banks’ strong earnings and asset quality.

    In its latest Rating Report, Fitch indicated that GTBank remains one of the top two rated banks in Nigeria. Fitch revised the outlook on the GTBank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) from negative to stable, citing the bank’s continuing strong earnings, and stronger-than-expected liquidity as the reasons for the revised outlook.

    Fitch Ratings also affirmed GTBank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) at ‘B+’ with a stable outlook and short-term IDR at ‘B’. In addition, the agency affirmed the bank’s viability rating (VR) at ‘b+’, support rating (SR) at ‘4’ and GTB Finance BV’s senior notes, guaranteed by GTBank was affirmed at ‘B+’/’RR4′. Fitch revised the bank’s support rating floor (SRF) to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ as a result of the sovereign’s weak foreign currency position.

    The IDR rating and outlook reflects Fitch’s opinion of the bank’s relative ability to meet its financial commitments and GTBank’s rating of B+ remains the highest credit rating in the industry. The viability rating (VR), which is a component of the IDR measures the bank’s intrinsic credit quality and capacity to maintain ongoing operations and to avoid failure.

    The report showed that despite the tough operating environment, GTBank remained strong and stable as indicated by its profitability track record, healthy liquidity state, strong asset quality and capital ratios.

    Also, Fitch affirmed UBA’s viability rating at “B” as the pan-African banking group continues to sustain its benchmark asset quality and strong profitability amidst industry and macroeconomic challenges. UBA is one of the few banks with strong risk management framework, which has helped keep non-performing loans ratio at a moderate level of 1.74 per cent as at the end of March 2016, as against industry average of more than six per cent, as reported by Fitch.

    Fitch also upgraded UBA’s outlook to stable from negative, thus reinforcing the strong outlook on the bank, especially as its diversified network across eighteen other African countries makes it relatively immune against the potential cyclical volatilities in any of its country of operations.

    The upgrade came as Nigeria’s foremost local rating agency, Agusto & Co,  upgraded UBA’s rating from “A+” to “Aa-”, with a stable outlook, citing the bank’s improved capitalisation, good liquidity and large pool of stable deposits, strong domestic presence supported by the bank’s extensive branch network and growing alternative banking channels.

     

  • NASD, LMC sign MoU on listing of football clubs

    NASD, LMC sign MoU on listing of football clubs

    The NASD OTC Securities Exchange and the League Management Company (LMC) have agreed on a relationship that will open up the potential of the capital market to the professional football clubs.

    At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NASD and LMC yesterday in Lagos, the parties committed to a mutual and partnership, kicking off the process that will see emergence of innovative financing solutions for football clubs and the listing of football clubs at the stock market.

    Managing Director, NASD Plc, Mr. Bola Ajomale, said the partnership marks the beginning of merging of financial and sporting interests in an unprecedented step.

    According to him, while it is not often that securities markets and football are discussed in the same conversation, but the merging of sporting and financing interests could lead to several possibilities that will improve the fortunes of the sporting world.

    He noted that that like any other commodity, football clubs have rising and falling fortunes and can live or die depending on the foresight of the managers, which underlines the need to not only look at the passionate side of soccer but also the business side.

    “At a time that state and federal government are seeking to reorder their expenditure patterns, it is appropriate for the LMC to look at allowing private and public investment play a bigger role in the financing of the most popular sport in Nigeria and indeed, the rest of the world. We at NASD share the belief that Nigerian football clubs can harness the power of the capital market and the passion of sport-loving Nigerians to develop reliable funding channels,” Ajomale said.

    League Management Company (LMC) Chairman, Shehu Dikko, said the signing of the MoU was a historic step that signposts its vision of providing strong structures for Nigerian professional football clubs.

    According to him, there is the need to standardise the football clubs in line with the global trend, in a partnership that will pursue joint interest in development and promotion of  professional football league and create financing opportunities for the football clubs.

    He said the deal will lead to a deeper engagement of the private sector, which is the backbone of football sponsorship in advanced leagues of the world while the NASD will also facilitate the creation of special products including fans-based cooperatives and provide the football clubs the platform to trade their shares openly and transparently.

    “This has the potential to position our clubs to offer attractive and competitive remuneration to players and attract competent marketing and administrative executives to improve the commercial operations of the clubs,” Dikko said.

     

  • Equities relapse with N74b loss as investors shuffle holdings

    The Nigerian stock market slipped back to the negative yesterday as month-end portfolio rebalancing weighed heavily on the market, leaving most stocks at lower prices. Nigerian equities had on Wednesday recovered slightly from a three-day losing streak triggered by last weekend’s decision by United Kingdom (UK) to withdraw from the European Union (EU).

    Against the average gain of 0.80 per cent recorded on Wednesday, equities relapsed to the negative on Thursday with average loss of 0.72 per  cent. The downtrend yesterday was orchestrated by month-end portfolio review by investors.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped by N74 billion from N10.239 trillion to close at N10.165 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the main index for the Nigerian stock market, also declined from 29,812.9 points to close at 29,597.79 points.

    The six-month average year-to-date return for Nigerian equities pared down to 3.34 per cent, underlining the edgy nature of the recovery that had seen much fluctuation in recent period.

    Several highly capitalised stocks headlined the losses yesterday with widespread selling sentiments pushing nearly all sectoral and group indices into the red. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.9 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.8 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 0.6 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index depreciated by 0.5 per cent. On the positive side, the NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 0.7 per cent.

    Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the 24-stock losers’ list with a loss of N10 to close at N330. Forte Oil followed with a loss of N3.69 to close at N190.34. Nigerian Breweries dropped by N2.01 to close at N138. Dangote Cement lost N2 to close at N192. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated dropped by 51 kobo to close at N16 while Zenith Bank declined by 23 kobo to close at N15.77 per share.

    “We expect sentiment may stay soft tomorrow as initial excitement about foreign exchange (forex) reforms wanes. However, we do not rule out marginal uptrend as portfolio investors rebalance their positions for second half of 2016,” Afrinvest Securities, which trades on the NSE, stated.

    Total turnover stood at 342.60 million shares valued at N4.65 billion in 4,078 deals. The most active stock is Guaranty Trust Bank with a turnover of 66.34 million shares worth N1.53 billion. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated followed with 41.66 million shares worth N666.58 million while AIICO placed third with 36.2 million shares worth N25.14 million.

  • Equities lose N278b as Brexit panic spreads

    Foreign portfolio investors again led a major selling spree at the Nigerian stock market yesterday as the equities market reopened to increased anxieties over the spillovers from the last week’s decision by the United Kingdom (UK) to pull out of the 28-nation European Union (EU).

    With more than two losers for every gainer, aggregate market value of all quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped from N10.527 trillion to close at N10.249 trillion, representing a loss of N278 billion. The benchmark index for the Nigerian stock market, the All Share Index (ASI), indicated average decline of 2.64 per cent, dropping from 30,649.66 points to close at 29,840.23 points.

    The decline on Monday built on the initial loss of N144 billion recorded on Friday as the results of the Britain’s EU referendum, popularly known as Brexit, showed that voters voted for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

    Market sources said the Monday’s selling pressure built up as a South Africa-linked financial institution that holds large foreign portfolio investments started to push out large sell orders.

    Foreign investors account for some half of transactions on the Nigerian stock market. Brexit compounded the earlier downgrade of Nigeria by Fitch, which had been cushioned by the positive sentiments trailing the new foreign exchange (forex) policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    The sustained decline shaved the average year-to-date return at the stock market to 4.18 per cent.

    Price trend analysis showed widespread selling pressure across the sectors. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 4.08 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 3.6 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 2.5 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index slipped by 0.6 per cent. However, the NSE Insurance Index inched up 0.3 per cent.

    Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the losers with a loss of N17.37 to close at N331.60. Forte Oil followed with a loss of N10 to close at N190. Dangote Cement declined by N8.09 to close at N192.11. Guinness Nigeria lost N1.90 to close at N109.90 while Guaranty Trust Bank dropped by N1.15 to close at N23.

    Total turnover dropped below recent average with the exchange of 375.22 million shares valued at N4.03 billion in 4,229 deals. NEM Insurance was the most active stock with a turnover of 90.8 million shares worth N82.6 million.

    On the positive side, Total Nigeria led the contrarian stocks with a gain of N5 to close at N200. Julius Berger Nigeria rose by N2.20 to close at N46.20 while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria added N1.10 to close at N23.22 per share.

     

  • Fitch rates Nigerian banks well on devaluation effect

    Fitch rates Nigerian banks well on devaluation effect

    Nigerian banks are sufficiently well capitalised to absorb the impact of the 40 per cent effective devaluation of the Naira against the US dollar, Fitch Ratings stated in a release on Thursday.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday started the implementation of its new flexible foreign exchange (forex), leaving the Naira to float freely with market forces.

    Fitch explained that currency devaluation affects banks’ capital ratios largely because total risk-weighted assets are inflated when foreign currency (FC) assets are translated back into naira, while capital is denominated in local currency.

    The global rating agency assigned ratings to 10 Nigerian banks and its assessment was that, with a 40 per cent effective devaluation, the majority will not face an immediate breach of regulatory capital adequacy ratios (CARs).

    However, if the naira continues to weaken, buffers between minimum and reported CARs may decline to a level which heightens ratings sensitivity.

    Fitch-rated banks report CARs ranging from 14 per cent to 21 per cent. The devaluation will impact ratios in different ways across rated banks, depending on the level of their FC risk-weighted assets and the size of their net open FC positions. On average, 45 per cent of net lending in the Nigerian banking sector is extended in FC, almost entirely US dollars. Balance sheets tend to be reasonably well-hedged, although CARs are primarily affected by the revaluation of their FC risk-weighted assets into Naira.

    “In our view, the immediate impact of effective devaluation on CARs reported by Fitch-rated banks will be a two per cent average reduction. Any erosion of capital ratios may be short-lived because banks are profitable despite the unfavourable operating environment. Rated banks reported a 14 per cent average return on equity in first quarter of the year. Expectation is that dividend pay-outs will probably be conservative in 2016, while internal capital generation is expected to remain healthy,” Fitch stated.

    The report however noted that banks’ ability to continue to generate solid performance indicators will largely depend on developments in asset quality and loan impairment trends, pointing out that impaired loans represented an average of 5.5 per cent of gross loans across our portfolio of rated banks at the end of first quarter 2016, which is reasonable considering the tough operating environment.

    “Loan loss cover is adequate for most banks, but it expect impaired loan ratios to rise in the wake of the naira devaluation. This is because some Nigerian corporates are not adequately hedged by FC income streams and may find it more difficult to service their FC loans. Most major Nigerian corporates are well hedged,” Fitch stated.

    According to Fitch, the success of the forex move in attracting portfolio inflows and foreign direct investment has yet to be tested but if successful, and FC supply rises, FC liquidity for banks will ease which would allow them to meet FC demand, and meet their internal and external FC obligations.

  • Fidson Healthcare rallies on completion of new WHO-compliant factory

    Fidson Healthcare rallies on completion of new WHO-compliant factory

    Fidson Healthcare Plc recorded the second highest gain at the stock market at the weekend after the healthcare company announced the completion of its new World Health Organisation (WHO)-compliant ultra-modern manufacturing plant.

    Fidson Healthcare submitted a regulatory filing at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) confirming the completion of the new factory. At the first trading session after the announcement on Friday, Fidson’s share price rose by 9.90 per cent, the second highest percentage gain during the five-hour trading session. Altogether, Fidson’s share price rose by 16.84 per cent last week, the fifth highest gain at the stock market during the five-day trading week.

    Market pundits said the new factory could be a major game changer for Fidson and Nigerian healthcare industry, positive sentiments that appeared to have excited investors.

    “In our view, the new manufacturing plant is expected to contribute significantly to the company`s profitability and also enhance shareholders value in terms of dividend,” SCM Capital, former Sterling Capital Markets, stated.

    According to the regulatory filing, the new factory, which is arguably the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Africa, is equipped to produce six distinct product lines-intravenous infusions (IV) and other sterile preparations, tablets, capsules, oral liquids, creams and ointments and dry powder.

    The company stated that the new factory is part of the strategic expansion and diversification programme started following the successful private placement in 2008, noting that the supply gap existing in the infusion products’ sub-market persists as demand keeps growing linearly with population, which informed Fidson’s foray into the IV fluids market.

    It is estimated that two per cent of the population, estimated at 170 million, get admitted to hospitals in Nigeria monthly. About 70 per cent of medical patients get infusions at an average rate of four bottles per admission. For surgical patients, over 90 per cent of them will be given infusions. These translate to 3.2 million admission cases monthly, 10.2 million bottles per month and 123 million bottles per year. This is expected to increase with Nigeria’s growing population which is currently put at 2.8 per cent per annum. Market size in revenue terms was conservatively put at N25 billion in 2013, according to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group (PMAG) of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN).

    Fidson noted that there is an unmet gap of 2.36 million bottles per month which its new facility is positioned to bridge while growing volumes in the existing production lines.

    “With this new facility, we aim to significantly meet orders of the major consumers – the teaching and general hospitals, federal medical centres, big private hospitals and corporate clinics among others as far as infusion products are concerned using the existing marketing and distribution platforms.

    “The expected financial contribution from this project is such that shall grow the company’s turnover by additional N1.9 billion at 75 per cent activity level by the third year of production, N2.9 billion at 90 per cent  activity level by sixth year and N3.6 billion by the 10th year at same 90 per cent activity level. Overall, this project shall contribute handsomely to the overhead recovery of the company thereby growing shareholder value significantly. This will be in addition to increased capacities by almost two-fold for the existing five product lines that will open up opportunities for contract manufacturing,” Fidson stated.

    According to the company, aside from increasing its production capacity, the new factory would enhance business prospects in three major ways including ability to tender for WHO-sponsored programmes, which Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturers are unable to access, losing out to foreign companies in these tenders; opportunity to export some of its products to other countries in Africa and beyond and grow foreign exchange income and the overarching benefit in job creation as additional 300 jobs are being created.

  • Stock Exchange, stockbroking chiefs to meet over

    Stock Exchange, stockbroking chiefs to meet over

    The management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and chief executives of stockbroking firms are expected to discuss the way to jump-start the demutualisation after the National Council of the NSE backed down from proposed resolutions on demutualisation at the annual general meeting of the Exchange.

    Demutualisation is the conversion of the Exchange from its current status of members-owned limited by guarantee entity to a private public limited liability company based on shareholdings.

    Stockbrokers are the largest group of the current member-owners of the Exchange and are expected to influence crucial decisions in the demutualisation process.

    At the annual general meeting on Thursday, the council of the NSE stepped down proposed resolutions on demutualisation after feelers indicated that stockbrokers were largely against the resolutions.

    Sources in the know said the Exchange has made overtures to stockbroking chiefs and sought for common platform to discuss and resolve their concerns. One of the major issues for resolution is the determination of the number of ordinary members of the Exchange. The membership of the Exchange consists of dealing members, mostly stockbroking firms, and ordinary members, that included influential private sector personalities.

    The NSE had included two special resolutions on demutualisation in the agenda for the annual general meeting; firstly to authorise the council and management of the Exchange to commence the demutualisation process and secondly, to empower the council and management to take all necessary steps to realise the demutualisation agenda.

    President, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said the resolutions on demutualisation were stepped down because of the need for further consultation.

    Stockbrokers, who form the majority of member-owners of the NSE, said the decision to further engage in consultation was in the best interest of the market noting that while they wholeheartedly support the demutualisation, there are issues that require further engagement with key stakeholders.

    President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Oluwaseyi Abe, said stockbrokers were fully in support of the demutualisation but there is the need to fine-tune some aspects of the process.

    “We need to have more engagement on the demutualisation to ensure that by the time we are taking off, we are taking off properly,” president, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), Mr. Emeka Madubuike said.

    Madubuike, who noted that stockbrokers want to accelerate the process of demutualisation, said an extra ordinary general meeting could be convened at the shortest possible time to jump-start the demutualisation process.

    The demutualisation process will involve allocation of ordinary shares to existing member-owners of the NSE, possible sale of shares to a strategic core investor, listing of the NSE on its own floor and secondary disposal of shares to the general investing public.

    After valuation of the Exchange, determination of members who are qualified for shareholdings and the appropriate number of shares receivable by each member, the primary allotment of shares would be done to current members of the Exchange, thus converting the Exchange from its current members-owned status to shareholders-owned status.

    Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NSE had designated demutualisation of the NSE as one of the top agenda for the capital market this year.  At the meeting were immediate past president of the council, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President Dangote Group; Dr. Oba Otudeko, Chairman, Honeywell Flourmills Plc; Dr. Raymond Obieri, Mallam Balama Mahu, Mr. Goddy Ibru, and Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, and the incumbent president, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

    The NSE had last October appointed a consortium of Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and Chapel Hill Denham (CHD) as financial advisers on the proposed demutualisation of the Exchange. RMB is the corporate and investment banking arm of FirstRand, one of Africa’s largest listed financial services groups while Chapel Hill Denham is a leading Nigerian investment bank.

    Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rules on demutualisation allow the Exchange to give equity interest to a strategic investor subject to establishment of the facts that the strategic investor has technical expertise through previous experience in managing other Exchanges and the aggregate number of shares to be offered to the strategic investors shall not be more than 30 per cent of issued and fully paid up capital of the securities exchange.

    However, if the Exchange is in dire need of funds, it could issue a higher number of shares subject to approval of the Commission.

    The rules indicate that stockbrokers, who constitute the largest members of the NSE, may have to sell down their shareholdings within a period of five year in the demutualised Exchange.

    The rules indicated that the aggregate equity interests of members of any specific stakeholder group such as stockbrokers and broker-dealer in the demutualised securities exchange should not exceed 20 per cent.

    The rules also retained the provision that no individual or entity must directly or in directly own more than five per cent of the issued shares or voting rights in a demutualised securities exchange.

    The rules, made pursuant to section 313 of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2007, describe “related entities and persons” as a person or entity that is related to the entity or person that owns the equity or the voting rights.

    The rules stipulate that the securities exchange should initiate a process for determining the accurate list of members of the Exchange prior to the commencement of demutualisation.

  • NSE opts for further consultation on demutualisation

    NSE opts for further consultation on demutualisation

    The council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday stepped down proposed resolutions on demutualisation with a view to further engage with key stakeholders on the ways and processes for the smooth conversion of the Exchange from member-owned entity into a company based on shareholdings.

    At the annual general meeting yesterday in Lagos, president, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said the resolutions on demutualisation were stepped down because of the need for further consultation.

    Stockbrokers, who form the majority of member-owners of the NSE, said the decision to further engage in consultation was in the best interest of the market noting that while they wholeheartedly support the demutualisation, there are issues that require further engagement with key stakeholders.

    President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Oluwaseyi Abe, said stockbrokers were fully in support of the demutualisation but there is the need to fine-tune some aspects of the process.

    “We need to have more engagement on the demutualisation to ensure that by the time we are taking off, we are taking off properly,” president, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), Mr. Emeka Madubuike said.

    Madubuike, who noted that stockbrokers want to accelerate the process of demutualisation, said an extra ordinary general meeting could be convened at the shortest possible time to jump-start the demutualisation process.

    The NSE had included two special resolutions on demutualisation in the agenda for the annual general meeting; firstly to authorise the council and management of the Exchange to commence the demutualisation process and secondly, to empower the council and management to take all necessary steps to realise the demutualisation agenda.

    The demutualisation process will involve allocation of ordinary shares to existing member-owners of the NSE, possible sale of shares to a strategic core investor, listing of the NSE on its own floor and secondary disposal of shares to the general investing public.

    After valuation of the Exchange, determination of members who are qualified for shareholdings and the appropriate number of shares receivable by each member, the primary allotment of shares would be done to current members of the Exchange, thus formally converting the Exchange from its current members-owned status to shareholders-owned status.

  • Equities rally to 8-month high with N242b gain

    The upswing at the Nigerian stock market continued yesterday with a stronger momentum as increased demand for quoted equities drove the stock market to its highest point in eight months. Investors added N242 billion in capital gains, equivalent to average day-on-day gain of 2.4 per cent, while the average year-to-date return improved to 5.19 per cent.

    With the rally yesterday, quoted equities have recorded net capital gains of more than N1 trillion in the past six trading sessions since the release of the framework for the new flexible foreign exchange (forex) policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Nearly all analysts agreed that the uptrend was induced the new forex policy, in a market where foreign investors control some half of transactions.

    The CBN had last week’s Wednesday released the framework and on Monday started the implementation of its new forex policy that leaves Naira mainly to market forces. In a dexterous move, the apex bank simultaneously launched a one-off intervention to clear the backlog of forex demand on Monday, leaving the forex market on a plain level field.

    “Investors’ sentiment remained stoked by the increasing expectation of an influx of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) into the market,” Afrinvest Securities, which trades on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), stated after trading yesterday.

    With two gainers to every loser, increased open buy market orders virtually turned the equities market into a seller’s market, thus allowing divesting investors to close their deals at higher prices. The cumulative effect lifted the benchmark index across the 30,000 index points.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the NSE rose from N10.105 trillion to close at N10.347 trillion, representing a gain of N242 billion. The All Share Index (ASI), the benchmark index for the equities market, also rallied by 2.40 per cent from 29,422.71 points to cross over to 30,127.82 points, its highest point since October

    Turnover also improved considerably as investors increased stakes by 16.8 per cent to N7.93 billion for 541.86 million shares in 5,727 deals. Leading banks were atop the activities chart. Guaranty Trust Bank, the most capitalised banking stock, was the most active stock with a turnover of 96.35 million shares valued at N2.23 billion.

    Nestle Nigeria led the 31-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N16 to close at N832. Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N9.25 to close at N194.25. Guinness Nigeria rose by N2.45 to close at N106.45. Seven-Up Bottling Company rallied N2 to close at N140 while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria rose by N1.68 to close at N18.21 per share.