Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) commenced the new trading week on a bearish note, losing 0.91 percent at the end of transactions on Monday, and trimming the year-to-date return to 36.13 percent.
It was the first official day at work for President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa after being away for over 100 days for a medical attention in London.
The stock market had closed on Friday on a positive with investors optimistic that the rally would be extended today.
However, heavy losses recorded by large-cap stocks like Nestle and Dangote Cement dragged the market to the red zone.
Nestle suffered N9.99k loss to close at N1,200.1k per share, while Dangote Cement shed N9.38k to settle at N215.62k per share.
Stanbic IBTC declined by 74k to end at N38.11k per share, Lafarge fell by 50k to finish at N58.50k per share, and Zenith Bank depreciated by 28k to wrap the day at N24 per share.
Though transactions closed bearish on Monday, the market breadth finish positive with 26 gainers compared with 16 losers.
The gainers’ chart was led by Beta Glass, which went up by N2.51k to close at N59.84k per share.
It was trailed by Flour Mills of Nigeria, which advanced by N2.49k to settle at N31 per share, and Nigerian Breweries, which progressed by N2.48k to finish at N183.50k per share.
GTBank expanded by N1.20k to end at N40.70k per share, while UACN moved up by 50k to wrap the day at N16.50k per share.
Business Post reports that AIICO emerged the most active stock today with 131 million shares sold at N74.7 million.
It was followed by GTBank, which transacted 61.2 million units for N2.5 billion, and Zenith Bank, which traded 22.7 million shares valued at N542.2 million.
Unity Kapital Assurance transacted 16 million shares worth N8 million, while UBA exchanged 11.2 million shares at N104.7 million.
In all, investors transacted a total of 368.4 million shares in 3,729 deals valued at N6.3 billion compared with 236.6 million shares traded in 3,803 deals last Friday worth N4.8 billion.
A look at the market indices today showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) tripped by 336.12 points to close at 36,584.44 points, while the market capitalisation declined by N115.9 billion to settle at N12.6 trillion.
