Investors Lose N11.8bn Amid Mop up of Banking Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

Further activities of profit takers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday resulted in the 0.09 percent loss suffered by the market, Business Post is reporting.

The decline recorded by the domestic stock market came despite the positive performances put up by the banking and the industrial goods sectors at the trading session. While the former appreciated by 0.09 percent, the latter rose by 0.19 percent.

For the other sectors, the insurance index depreciated by 0.32 percent, while the consumer goods index went down by 0.03 percent, with the energy sector closing flat for the second consecutive session.

It was observed that one of the major reasons Customs Street closed in red on Tuesday was because of MTN Nigeria, which has been under attacks since Sunday, when it informed its subscribers that the usage of its USSD platform for financial transactions would attract N4 per 20 seconds from this Monday. Government came in and directed the leading telco to stop this charge.

At the stock market yesterday, shares of the company went down by N1 to close at N129 per unit, while Eterna followed with a decline of 30 kobo to its shares to finish at N2.85 per unit.

Cadbury Nigeria went down by 25 kobo to close at N9.60 per share, May & Baker depreciated by 19 kobo to end at N2 per unit, while Dangote Cement fell by 10 kobo to settle at N143.90 per share.

At the other end, Stanbic IBTC topped the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of 75 kobo to finish at N37 per share, while CCNN gained 15 kobo to close at N16 per unit.

Cutix appreciated by 13 kobo to end at N1.44 per unit, UAC Nigeria rose by 10 kobo to settle at N6.50 per unit, while Access Bank improved by 5 kobo to close at N7.35 per share.

Unlike the previous session, the level of transactions improved significantly with the volume of traded equities rising by 182.29 percent and the value jumping by 474.75 percent.

A total of 694.0 million shares worth N7.8 billion were traded in 2,780 deals on Tuesday compared with the 245.6 million equities valued at N1.4 billion transacted in 2,514 deals on Monday.

An analysis of these trades showed that Zenith Bank was the most transacted stock at the market yesterday, selling 357.2 million units valued at N6.2 billion.

Omoluabi Mortgage Bank traded 174.3 million units worth N95.8 million, Fidelity Bank traded 31.8 million shares for N54.0 million, May & Baker exchanged 28.0 million equities worth N56.1 million, while GTBank transacted 25.3 million shares valued at N666.3 million.

By the time activities were wrapped up at the local stock market on Tuesday, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 24.25 points to close at 26,365.83 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N11.8 billion to settle at N12.835 trillion.