Nigerian Stocks Hit ₦165 Trillion as Dangote Cement Surges

Nigeria's stock market ended the week at the highest value in its history. Shares on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) were worth ₦165.114 trillion at Friday's close, 30 October, the first time the market has finished a day above ₦165 trillion, according to Nairametrics. It beat the ₦164.97 trillion record set a day earlier.

Over the week, investors gained ₦4.6 trillion as market value rose 2.86%, BusinessDay reports. The benchmark All-Share Index closed at 254,299.49 points, up 63.42% since January.

Dangote Cement did the heavy lifting

The week belonged to Dangote Cement. Its shares rose 27.81%, BusinessDay reports, climbing from ₦1,111 the previous Friday to ₦1,420 by Thursday. On Monday alone the stock gained about 10% and its market value crossed ₦20 trillion for the first time.

Thursday's 5.82% rise to ₦1,420 lifted the company's market value to ₦23.96 trillion and took it past Airtel Africa, at ₦23.68 trillion, as the most valuable company on the exchange, according to a BusinessDay analysis reported by Parrot Nigeria. Airtel Africa had held the top spot since 8 July. MTN Nigeria is third.

The rally followed strong results. Dangote Cement made ₦974.79 billion after tax in the nine months to September, up 31.1% from ₦743.26 billion, on revenue up 19.6% to ₦3.77 trillion, BusinessDay reports. Profit before tax rose 41.5% to ₦1.47 trillion as finance costs fell. Its Nigerian business produced ₦2.67 trillion of the revenue, while the pan-African operations swung to a ₦7.86 billion loss.

The climb has also made Aliko Dangote richer. Forbes' real-time tracker put Africa's richest person at $55.4 billion on Thursday, up from $51 billion on 20 October, according to the same BusinessDay analysis.

Related · StartupsZenith Bank's Profit Holds as Bad-Loan Charges Fall 70%Zenith Bank made ₦928.8bn before tax in nine months, up 1.2%, as impairments fell 70.5%. Profit after tax dropped 11.6% on higher tax.

Not every sector joined in

• MTN Nigeria rose 3.03% to ₦850 on Friday, giving it a market value of ₦17.85 trillion, Nairametrics reports.
• Access Holdings gained 7.92% over the week and Aradel Holdings 2.48%, according to BusinessDay.
• The NGX Banking Index fell from 2,574.45 to 2,429.46 over the week, with First HoldCo, Access Holdings, UBA and Zenith Bank lower on Friday.
• Trading jumped: 7.619 billion shares worth ₦637.83 billion changed hands in 192,138 deals, up from ₦110.77 billion the week before.

Breadth was still weak. Only 33 stocks rose over the week, while 48 fell and 65 did not move, BusinessDay reports, which means a handful of very large companies drove most of the gain.