Local Equities Succumb to Sell Pressure, Down 0.97%

By Dipo Olowookere

Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) finished bearish on Wednesday after the market was subjected to selling pressure by profit takers.

The decision of some investors to take profit at yesterday’s session led to the 0.97 percent loss posted at the close of business, putting a pause to the two consecutive gains this week and extending the year-to-date loss to 13.08 percent.

Business Post reports that apart from the industrial sector, which rose by 0.29 percent, every other sector closed in the red territory, with the consumer goods index leading the pack with 2.19 percent loss.

The insurance sector depreciated by 1.02 percent, the energy sector declined by 0.79 percent, while the banking index went down by 0.74 percent.

During the mid-week session, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 267.15 points to close at 27,319.64 points, while the market capitalization went down by N130 billion to settle at N13.291 trillion.

The volume and value of transactions on the NSE decreased by 14.93 percent and 8.73 percent respectively, with the volume of traded equities going down to 250.5 million from 294.4 million and the value dropping to N3.2 billion from N3.5 billion.

Access Bank led the activity chart with a turnover of 81.9 million units of its shares worth N542.3 million, with Lafarge Africa trailing after selling 40.7 million equities valued at N587.4 million.

Zenith Bank traded 27.5 million shares for N481.5 million, FBN Holdings transacted 19.3 million equities worth N89.5 million, while Transcorp exchanged 13.7 million shares valued at N14.1 million.

At yesterday’s session, a total of 19 counters suffered losses, while 13 companies had their stocks appreciating in value.

Nestle Nigeria led the decliners’ chart after going down by N50 to finish at N1250 per share, while Guinness Nigeria followed with a price depreciation of N4.10k to close at N37.30k per unit.

Dangote Cement depreciated by N2.30k to settle at N157.70k per share, Forte Oil lost N1.60k to end at N14.85k per unit, while MTN Nigeria went down by N1.50k to close at N138.50k per share.