Banking Stocks Dominate Trading as Investors Lose N12b

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

For the third consecutive session, transactions at the nation’s bourse ended on a negative note on Wednesday, closing 0.09 percent lower to sink the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns deeper to -5.08 percent.

The loss recorded during the mid-week trade was mainly attributed to the poor performance of the banking and the oil and gas sectors like it happened on Tuesday.

Despite dominating the day’s trading, the banking index depressed by 0.24 percent, while the oil and gas index declined by 0.96 percent.

Business Post reports that all the sectors closed lower yesterday.

In addition, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 33.98 points on Wednesday to close at 36,299.82 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N12 billion to settle at N13,250 trillion.

At the close of business, the market breadth ended positive with a total of 19 price gainers and 16 price losers.

Red Star Express emerged as the biggest price gainer, appreciating by 35 kobo to settle at N5.70k per share.

It was followed by PZ Cussons, which grew by 25 kobo to finish at N14.25k per share, and UAC of Nigeria, which rose by 20 kobo to end at N13 per share.

NASCON went up by 10 kobo to close at N20 per share, while Dangote Flour also increased by 10 kobo to settle at N8.30k per share.

On the flip side, Total Nigeria closed the day at the heaviest price loser, going down by N5 to finish at N190 per share.

Cutix fell by 25 kobo to end at N4 per share, while Oando also declined by 25 kobo to finish at N5.45k per share.

GTBank decreased by 15 kobo to settle at N39 per share, while United Bank for Africa reduced by 10 kobo to close at N9.50k per share.

Banking stocks were investors delight at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, selling a total of 44 million shares worth N471.8 million. It was followed by insurance equities, which traded 29.1 million units valued at N9.8 million.

UBA was the most traded stock at the market yesterday, selling a total of 21.4 million units worth N205.2 million.

It was followed by Sovereign Trust Insurance, which traded 14.1 million shares valued at N3.4 million, and Transcorp, which transacted 8.4 million units for N10 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 7.9 million shares valued at N186.6 million, while Regency Alliance Insurance sold 5.6 million equities for N1.3 million.

In all, investors traded a total of 114 million shares worth N730.1 million compared with the 248.1 million equities traded the previous day valued at N2.3 billion.