By Dipo Olowookere
Losses posted today by some blue chip stocks traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ensured that the gains recorded yesterday remained temporary.
This was because market heavyweights like Dangote Cement, GTBank, Nigerian Breweries and others suffered different drop in value at the close of business today.
This had a huge effect on the stock market, which depreciated by 1.12 percent and left the year-to-date return receding to 12.03 percent.
Business Post reports that investors at the market on Thursday embarked on profit-taking as they digest the Foreign Portfolio Investment Flows (Jan 2018) report released yesterday by the NSE and the Nigerian Capital Importation report for the fourth quarter of 2017 released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
At the close of transactions today, the All-Share Index (ASI), which measures the market performance, depreciated by 487.16 points to settle at 42,843.38 points, while the market capitalisation, which sums up the total value of listed stocks on the NSE, decreased by N174.8 billion to close at N15.375 trillion.
Also, the volume and value of equities traded by investors on Thursday declined with a total of 371.3 million shares sold for N4.9 billion in 4,570 deals compared with 571.9 million units transacted on Wednesday in 5,142 deals worth N10.8 billion.
Investors had special interest in Transcorp today, which eventually sold a total of 40.4 million stocks for N81 million.
Zenith Bank traded 40 million units worth N1.3 billion, while GTBank exchanged 31 million equities valued at N1.5 billion.
Furthermore, Wapic transacted 30.3 million shares for N19.7 million, while Royal Exchange traded 29.7 million equities worth N9.5 million.
On the price movement chart, Nigerian Breweries suffered the heaviest loss, depreciating by N4.90k to close at N131 per share.
It was followed by Dangote Cement, which also fell by N4.90k to settle at N264.90k per share, and Lafarge, which sank by N1.80k to finish at N50.10k per share.
GTBank declined by N1 to close at N48 per share, while Total Plc also went down by N1 to end at N231 per share.
On the flip side, Seplat topped the gainers’ table with N14.50k added to its share value to settle at N675 per share. This came a day after the company posted an impressive result for its 2017 financial year.
NASCON appreciated by 95k today to close at N22.95k per share, while International Breweries grew by 65k to finish at N57.65k per share.
In addition, Unilever improved by 35k to end at N51.55k per share, while Union Bank garnered 25k to settle at N6.75k per share.
With the equities market recording its second loss of the week today, investors are upbeat that the market will close positive tomorrow.
