By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further depreciated on Tuesday by 0.22 percent despite the gains printed by stocks in the banking sector.
Business Post reports that expected listing of over 20 billion shares of MTN Nigeria Plc this week is already gearing the market for its first return of bulls to the local bourse.
An analysis of the performances by the different market sectors indicated that three sectors closed in the green territory.
The banking sector recorded the highest appreciation after going up by 1.29 percent and was followed by the Oil and Gas industry, which rose by 0.68 percent, and the insurance sector, which grew by 0.02 percent.
However, the consumer goods sector went down by 1.68 percent, while the industrial sector decreased by 0.57 percent.
At yesterday’s trading session, the market breadth ended positive with 20 price gainers as against 16 price losers.
Mobil Oil Nigeria topped the risers’ chart with N9 added to its share price yesterday to close for the day at N174 per unit.
It was followed by GTBank, which gained 60 kobo to finish at N31.60k per share, and UAC Nigeria, which appreciated by 30 kobo to close at N7.30k per unit.
Zenith Bank also rose by 30 kobo to quote at N20 per share, while UBA improved its share value by 15 kobo to end at N6.15k per unit.
At the other end, Nestle Nigeria suffered a N51.50k decline during the trading day to finish at N1430 per share.
It was trailed by Seplat, which depreciated by N2 to end at N520k per unit, and Lafarge Africa, which decreased by 30 kobo to close at N10.70k per share.
FBN Holdings crashed by 25 kobo yesterday to finish at N7.25k per unit, while Dangote Sugar lost 20 kobo to end at N13.60k per share.
During trading on Tuesday, investors were laidback, reflecting in the level of activity at the market as the volume of transactions went down by 6.80 percent to 200.1 million from 214.7 million, while the value of trades reduced by 3.35 percent to N2.7 billion from N2.8 billion.
An analysis of the transactions showed that GTBank was the darling of investors on Tuesday, closing with a turnover of 33.1 million units sold for N1 billion.
Zenith Bank traded 27 million shares worth N537.8 million, while Access Bank transacted 23 million equities valued at N156 million.
UBA transacted 19.4 million shares worth N120.3 million, while FBN Holdings sold 8.9 million equities valued at N64.7 million.
A look at the major market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 61.68 points yesterday to finish at 28,422.76 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N23 billion to settle at N10.678 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya