Investors Sustain Panic Selloffs as Equities Shed 0.49%

By Dipo Olowookere

Situations at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained unconvincing on Tuesday as the market closed 0.49 percent lower despite the release of inflation data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which said things got better to 11.22 percent from 11.40 percent.

At the market yesterday, investors continued with the panic sell off of their holdings, resulting into 32 equities finishing in the red zone against the 10 stocks that ended green.

Okomu Oil was the heaviest price loser on Tuesday, with N6.15k of its share price lost to settle for the day at N55.80k per share. CAP went down by N2.75k to finish at N24.75k per unit, while Forte Oil depreciated by N2.05k to end at N18.65k per unit.

Furthermore, Conoil declined by N1.95k to close at N18.45k per share, while Flour Mills depleted by N1.60k to close at N14.60k per unit.

Conversely, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart after adding N22 to its share price to settle at N1250 per share and was followed by Red Star Express, which rose by 51 kobo to end at N5.71k per unit.

GTBank, Nigerian Breweries and Dangote Cement all appreciated by 50 kobo each on Tuesday to settle at N29.50k, N59 and N170.50k respectively.

An analysis of the major market indicators showed that while the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 140.15 points to finish at 28,200.88 points, the market capitalisation went up by N68.3 billion to close at N13.744 trillion.

Business Post reports that the volume of equities traded by investors at the session increased by 23.96 percent from 175.2 million to 217.1 million, but the value decreased by 16.09 percent from N2.2 billion to N1.8 billion.

FBN Holding was the most active stock yesterday, closing with a turnover of 46.8 million units exchanged for N266.2 million.

Courtville followed with 46.7 million units of the company’s stocks traded for N9.5 million, while UBA transacted 24.2 million shares worth N136.5 million.

In addition, Transcorp sold a total of 12.4 million equities for N12.5 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 12 million shares valued at N204 million.

A look at the sectoral performance on Tuesday showed that apart from the insurance and consumer goods sectors, which gained 0.06 percent and 0.54 percent respectively, every other sectors closed negative.

The industrial sector was the worst hit with 2.16 percent loss, followed by the oil and gas industry which declined by 0.97 percent and the banking sector, which fell by 0.78 percent.