By Dipo Olowookere
The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped below the N15 trillion region it reached last Thursday when BUA Cement listed its shares on the local bourse.
This was caused by the decision of investors to take profit after recording price appreciation since the beginning of trades this year. This resulted in the 0.75 percent loss printed by the market yesterday, further reducing the year-to-date gain to 8.27 percent.
Consequently, the market capitalisation was trimmed by N114 billion to N14.992 trillion from N15.106 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) was cut by 220.65 points to 29,062.50 points from 29,283.15 points.
Business Post observed that investors sold off some of the stocks that have gained considerably in the sessions. MTN Nigeria closed the midweek session as the heaviest price loser, losing N3.70 to close at N120.50 per unit.
BUA Cement continued its fall yesterday, losing 95 kobo to settle at N38 per share, Ecobank fell by 60 kobo to finish at N7.20 per share, UAC Nigeria dropped 35 kobo to end at N10.70 per unit, while Dangote Sugar depreciated by 30 kobo to close at N14.50 per unit.
The other side of the coin showed Beta Glass taking the top spot on the gainers’ log, adding N5.90 to its share price to finish at N64.90 per unit and was followed by Forte Oil, which gained N1.15 to settle at N19 per unit.
GlaxoSmithKline went up by 40 kobo to trade at N6 per share, UBA appreciated by 25 kobo to quote at N8.50 per unit, while GTBank improved by 20 kobo to sell at N31.80 per share.
The activity chart did not look good on Wednesday as the volume of shares exchanged during the session decreased by 46.00 percent to 360.1 million from 666.8 million and the value dropped 56.49 percent to N2.8 billion from N6.5 billion.
Morison Industries was the most active stock with a turnover of 126.8 million shares worth N57.1 million, while Access Bank traded 52.5 million valued at N536.6 million.
UBA exchanged 32.0 million equities worth N274.1 million, Zenith Bank transacted 31.6 million units for N674.0 million, while Transcorp sold 17.9 million valued at N19.0 million.
Adedapo Adesanya