BUA Cement, UACN Invite Bears to Crush Stocks by 0.06%

By Dipo Olowookere

The local stock market started a new week on a bad note on Monday following the 0.06 per cent loss printed at the close of transactions.

BUA Cement, UAC Nigeria and nine other stocks contributed to the decline yesterday, leaving the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with a year-to-date loss of 6.76 per cent after the bears took control of the market.

BUA Cement depreciated by 55 kobo yesterday to finish at N38.95 per share, while UAC Nigeria lost 30 kobo to trade at N5.90 per share.

Ecobank fell by 20 kobo during the session to close at N4.05 per unit, Zenith Bank crashed by 10 kobo to N16.80 per share, while UBA declined by 10 kobo to N6.45 per share.

Guinness Nigeria was the best performing stock on Monday, adding 90 kobo to its share price to finish at N15 per unit, while Unilever Nigeria followed with a gain of 80 kobo to sell for N12 per share.

CAP appreciated by 50 kobo to N17.50 per unit, Lafarge Africa rose by 25 kobo to N12 per share, while United Capital increased its value by 21 kobo to N3.24 per share.

For the most attractive stock yesterday, it was FBN Holdings. The lender traded 22.9 million units of its stocks worth N116.3 million.

Unilever Nigeria traded 17.2 million units valued at N206.4 million, GTBank exchanged 14.0 million stocks for N344.3 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 11.7 million equities valued at N21.1 million, while Jaiz Bank traded 11.3 million shares worth N6.5 million.

At the close of transactions, investors traded a total of 175.3 million stocks worth N1.4 billion in 4,294 deals yesterday as against the previous session’s 167.1 million units worth N2.0 billion traded in 4,036 deals, indicating a 4.90 per cent rise in the trading volume, a 6.39 per cent increase in the number of deals and 28.92 per cent decline in the trading value.

Business Post analysis showed that the decline suffered by the market on Monday was mainly because of the selloff in the banking and industrial goods spaces as their respective index fell by 0.04 per cent and 0.41 per cent.

The insurance index improved yesterday by 0.96 per cent, the consumer goods counter appreciated by 0.33 per cent, while the oil/gas index grew by 0.08 per cent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated yesterday by 14.28 points to 25,027.61 points from 25,041.89 points, while the market capitalisation N7 billion to N13.056 trillion from N13.063 trillion.