Selling Pressure Further Weighs Down Nigerian Equities by 0.90%

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

It was another downtrend on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as a result of continued profit-taking by investors.

Business Post reports that selling pressures witnessed across the market on heavyweight equities Nestle Nigeria, Dangote Cement and others dragged the market into the red zone.

At the close of trading activities, the stock market recorded a 0.90 percent loss with the Year-to-Date (YtD) gain closing at -1.67 percent.

The market breadth ended negative today with 13 price gainers and 28 price losers.

Nestle Nigeria led the 28 price losers with N65 of its share value lost today to settle at N1510 per share.

It was followed by Mobil Oil Nigeria, which went down by N9.90k to close at N190 per share, and Lafarge, which depreciated by N1.50k to end at N39.45k per share.

Dangote Cement declined by N1.30k to close at N222.80k per share, while Cadbury Nigeria fell by 70 kobo to settle at N12.30k per share.

On the flip side, Beta Glass had a better day today with its shares rising by N4.15k to close for the day at N90.45k per share.

Unilever Nigeria gained N2.50k to finish at N55 per share, while Nigerian Breweries appreciated by 80 kobo to end at N113.90k per share.

Red Star Express went up by 50 kobo to close at N6.50k per share, while Custodian and Allied grew by 38 kobo to finish at N5.50k per share.

Unlike yesterday, the volume and value of equities exchanged by investors appreciated today by 0.45 percent and 42.38 percent respectively.

Investors traded a total of 257.4 million shares on Tuesday in 3,932 deals worth N2.7 billion against the 256.2 million shares transacted on Monday valued at N1.9 billion.

The Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 109.8 million shares exchanged for N1.4 billion, while the Natural Resources sector followed with 100 million shares traded for N20 million.

Multiverse Resources emerged the most active stock at the market today with 100 million shares sold for N20 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 16.5 million shares sold for N403.3 million, and GTBank, which transacted 13 million units for N516 million.

Access Bank exchanged 12.9 million shares worth N133 million, while FBN Holdings sold 10.8 million equities for N114 million.

A look at the major market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated today by 341.80 points to close at 37,605.12 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N124 billion to finish at N13.622 trillion.