Nigerian Stocks Shed 0.37% to Open Week Slow

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) started the new week on a slow note, shedding 0.37 percent at the close of transactions on Monday.

Losses recorded today by Nestle and 16 other stocks reversed the 0.85 percent gain posted last Friday with Nestle depreciating by N5 to settle at N1225 per share, and Nigerian Breweries declining by N3.1k to finish at N168 per share.

Lafarge went down by N1.48k to close at N50 per share, UBA lost 27k to end at N8.70k per share, and GTBank fell by 10k to wrap the day at N39.50k per share.

Business Post reports that as recorded last week, the market still remained volatile as investors patiently await the release of third quarter earnings of listed companies possibly from next week.

At the close of trading activities on Monday, the volume and value of equities transacted on the floor of the NSE contracted.

A total of 107.2 million shares were exchanged today in 2,848 deals worth N1.4 billion in contrast to 192.2 million units transacted last Friday in 2,814 deals valued at N3.7 billion.

But despite the low trading volume today, the market breadth ended positive as 19 stocks appreciated in value against 17 equities that depreciated.

The advancers were led by Total Plc, which grew by N6 to settle at N231 per share, and was followed by GlaxoSmithKline, which increased by 60k to finish at N22 per share.

Newrest ASL Nigeria appreciated by 34k to close at N7.16k per share, Custodian and Allied moved up by 17k to end at N3.63 per share, while Eterna inflated by 16k to settle at N3.46k per share.

A look at the market indicators showed that the market capitalisation depreciated by N44.8 billion to settle at N12.2 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 130.08 points to close at 35,358.73 points.

Also, the year-to-date return deflated to 31.58 percent at the close of activities on Monday.

Today’s most active stock at the market was Meyer, which traded 20 million shares worth N14 million.

It was followed by FCMB, which transacted 9.6 million shares valued at N9.9 million, and Niger Insurance, which exchanged 8.4 million shares at N4.2 million.

FBN Holdings traded 8 million shares valued at N45.3 million, while Transcorp sold 5.5 million shares worth N6.8 million.

Investors await how the market will react to the announcement of outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which kicked off today and to continue tomorrow.