– Dangote’s company still tops in spite of drop on billionaire’s list

– Stock rises in a seven-week high
Dangote Cement, owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has risen Nigeria’s stock.

In spite of the fact that he dropped from his previous rating on the list of world’s richest men , Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s company has lifted the Nigerian stocks on Wednesday, March 2.

In a recently released list of the world’s richest men, Nigeria’s Dangote, with a wealth worth about $15 billion, placed 51st on the list of billionaires, falling from his initial 37th position.

But this did not stop the business mogul’s company from lifting the stocks in the Nigerian stock exchange market on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, the Nigerian stocks’ rise is a seven-week high and was driven by gains in Dangote Cement after the company proposed to increase its full-year dividend by 33 percent to 8 naira ($0.04) per share.
The report has it that shares in Dangote Cement, which accounts for a third of the total market capitalisation of the bourse’s constituents, went up by about 7 percent to 162 naira following the 2 percent rise in pretax profit for 2015 and dividend increase.
It explained further that Nigeria’s all-share index, (the second-biggest weighting behind Kuwait on the MSCI frontier market index) was up 2.5 percent at 25,448 points by 1159 GMT, a situation which makes it the highest since January 13.

An anonymous stock dealer was quoted to have said that, “some investors were excited by the dividend payout by Dangote Cement and this has boosted interest in the shares.”
Another company owned by the billionaire businessman, Tiger Brands, also gained massively, rising by about 9.3 percent.
Furthermore, Zenith Bank was up 4.7 percent, Dangote Sugar rose by nearly 5 percent and Pan African banking group Ecobank Transnational Inc gained 2.4 percent.

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Damgote Thank you

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