By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was brutally dealt with on Monday by the deadly coronavirus codenamed COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
At the first trading day of the week, the stock market lost 1.53 percent, dragging the index to the 25,000 threshold and expanding the year-to-date loss to 3.82 percent.
Business Post reports the poor performance of the market led to the 399.89 points lost by the All-Share Index (ASI), which dropped to 25,816.57 points from 26,216.46 points.
It further caused the market capitalisation to reduce by N208 billion to N13.449 trillion from N13.658 trillion and also leading 16 equities to 52-week lows at the close of transactions yesterday.
The new stocks that fell to their lowest levels in one year were Nestle Nigeria at N1,017, GTBank at N22.70, CAP at N22.15, Unilever Nigeria at N13.50, Ecobank at N5.10, PZ Cussons at N4.05, Red Star Express at N2.95, NCR Nigeria at N2.20, NEM Insurance at N1.70, Cutix at N1.25, UPL at N1.03, Learn Africa at N1.01, NPF Microfinance Bank at 87 Kobo, Champion Breweries at 79 Kobo, Unity Bank at 49 Kobo and Linkage Assurance at 40 Kobo.
Business Post reports that a total of 325.3 million shares worth N6.0 billion were traded by investors at the stock exchange on Monday in 5,054 deals compared with the 416.3 million equities worth N6.2 billion that exchanged hands in 5,220 deals last Friday.
This indicated that while the volume of transactions fell yesterday by 21.87 percent, the value went down by 2.67 percent, with the number of deals going down by 3.18 percent.
The banking sector dominated the activity chart during the session and when the market closed for the day, GTBank emerged the most traded equity, selling 93.7 million shares valued at N2.1 billion.
Zenith Bank traded 44.2 million units worth N798.5 million, UBA exchanged 18.4 million stocks for N121.3 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 17.7 million equities worth N32.3 million, while FBN Holdings sold 16.8 million stocks valued at N79.1 million.
Apart from the insurance sector which appreciated by 0.30 percent and the energy counter, which traded flat, every other sector closed in red.
The consumer goods index was the worst hit, losing 5.19 percent, while the banking counter lost 3.66 percent, with the industrial goods sector declining by 1.22 percent.
The biggest price loser for the day was Nestle Nigeria as its share price went down by N113 to N1017 per unit, while CAP fell by N2.45 to N22.15 per share.
Lafarge Africa depreciated by N1.55 to N13.95 per unit, Unilever Nigeria declined by N1.50 to N13.50 per share, while GTBank lost N1.10 to close at N22.70 per unit.
On the flip side, Africa Prudential continued its upward movement on Monday, rising by 15 kobo to sell at N4.85 per share, while Eterna gained 11 kobo to trade at N2.10 per unit.
Law Union and Rock Insurance appreciated by 9 kobo to quote at 99 kobo per share, FCMB also gained 9 kobo to sell at N1.80 per share, while AIICO Insurance improved by 6 kobo to trade at 83 kobo per share.
Business Post reports that in all, there were 28 price losers at the NSE on Monday compared with 9 price losers.
Adedapo Adesanya