BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

Shares of companies like IPWA Plc, HIS Plc, Mobil Oil Nig Plc, Beta Glass, Ikeja Hotel and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI, were among the 10 stocks that recorded huge patronage last week to emerge in the list of top ten performing stocks.

The rest are Julius Berger Plc, National Salt Company of Nigeria, NASCON, UACN, and Dangote Sugar Refinery.

IPWA Plc, listed on the building material sub-sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, recorded 30.16 percent or N0.19 price appreciation to top the list. It opened the market at N0.63 and closed at N0.82. By virtue of its products profile, IPWA Plc is the most diversified paint manufacturing company in Nigeria, producing highly technological Marine , Protective, Packaging, Industrial and coil coatings in addition to building paints, wood finishes and automotive refinishes. Available financial statement of the company for the third quarter ended 30th September, 2011, showed that gross earning declined by 13 percent to N241.07 billion from N276.06 billion in 2010. It recorded loss before tax of N59.21 billion, a four percent decline over negative N61.56 billion reported in the same period of 2011.

The share price has risen by 64 percent year-to-date from N0.50 at the beginning of the year to the present market price. It had previously risen to N0.97 before falling to the current price.

Telecommunications services company, IHS Plc, trailed behind with 30.15 percent or N0.60 gains from N1.99 at the beginning of the week to N2.59. Last year, IHS announced that it entered into a definitive agreement with MTN Group Limited (“MTN”) (JSE: MTN) pursuant to which it wills acquire up to 931 mobile network towers from MTN Cote d’Ivoire for US$141 million and up to 827 towers from MTN Cameroon for US143 million. Following the agreement, IHS became 100 percent shareholder of the tower companies to be set up in each country to manage the towers and other passive infrastructure. The quarter two financial statement for the period ended 31st October, 2012 showed that it recorded 213.9 percent increase in turnover from N3.61 billion in 2011 to N11.32 billion in 2012. Profit, however, nose-dived by 97.4 percent to negative position of N1.22 billion from another loss position of N618.02 million in 2011. Already, its share price has risen by 52.35 percent year-to-date from N1.70 to N2.59, its highest in the year.

File photo: The floor of Stock exchange

Mobil Oil rose by 10 percent or N1.00 from N107.10 at the beginning of the year to N117.81. Mobil is the second most highly priced stock in the petroleum and petroleum products distributors’ sub-sector of the NSE just  behind Total Nigeria plc, whose stock price stood at N159.99 per share as at Friday 12th July, 2013. For the year ended 31st December, 2012, the company’s turnover rose by 30.1 percent to N80.8 billion. The company’s after tax profit dropped by 29.5 per cent to N2.88 billion within the same period. The stock price has risen by just 10 percent from N107.10 to the current market price. It had previously gone up to N146.00 per share.

Beta Glass was the fourth top gainer with 10 percent or N1.00 price gain from N10.00 to N11.00. The company is involved in the manufacturing, sale and distribution of hollow glassware. The revenue rose by two percent to N12.93 billion from N12.73 billion for the year ended 31st December, 2012. Profit after tax dropped by 25 percent from N1.77 billion in 2011 to N1.33 billion in 2012.

Ikeja Hotel’s share price went up by 8.14 percent or N0.07 from N0.86 at the beginning of the year to N0.93. Ikeja

Hotel, listed in Hotels/Lodging sub-sector, has not paid dividend for two years, a development that was attributed to planned refurbishment of one of its subsidiaries – Lagos Sheraton hotel.

Others are ETI, which went up by 7.88 percent or N1.11 from N14.09 to N15.20. JB went up by 7.72 percent or N50.02 from N65.00 to N70.02; NASCON appreciated by 7.40 percent or N0.91 to N13.20 from N12.29, while UACN and Dangote Sugar appreciated by 7.34 or N4.00 and 7.30 percent or N0.84 to close at N58.50 and N12.34 respectively.