Blue-Chip Stocks Hold NSE Index Hostage for Second Day

By Dipo Olowookere

For the second straight trading session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in the negative territory as a result of the sustained profit-taking in some blue-chip equities.

From the analysis of the market performance yesterday, the 0.31 per cent decline recorded was influenced by the three of the five major sub-sectors of the exchange.

The industrial goods sector depreciated by 2.72 per cent and it was followed by the consumer goods counter, which dropped 1.30 per cent and the energy space, which fell by 0.53 per cent.

Dangote Cement was the heaviest price loser on Thursday, shedding N7.50 to close at N150.50 per unit and was followed by Nigerian Breweries, which lost N3.70 per unit to settle at N48.60 per share.

Conoil dropped 85 kobo to sell for N14.40 per unit, BUA Cement declined by 35 kobo to trade at N41.40 per unit, while Ardova depreciated by 35 kobo to finish at N12.45 per share.

However, the banking index and insurance sector grew by 2.88 per cent and 1.29 per cent respectively and on the gainer’s chart, Airtel Africa claimed the top spot after adding N10 to its share price to finish at N410.20 per unit.

Unilever Nigeria grew by N1.20 to settle at N13.50 per share, GTBank gained N1 to close at N32 per unit, Zenith Bank appreciated by 55 kobo to quote at N20.10 per share, while Ecobank gained 35 kobo to trade at N4.45 per unit.

Business Post reports that the activity chart was in red on Thursday though the trading volume still remained very high.

A total of 569.4 million shares were traded during the session, lower than the 832.9 million stocks transacted on Wednesday by 31.64 per cent.

In the same vein, the trading value dropped 48.49 per cent to N4.9 billion from N9.5 billion, while the number of deals depreciated by 33.54 per cent to 6,101 from 9,180.

Eterna was the most active stock on Thursday, trading 112.9 million units worth N372.5 million and was trailed by Zenith Bank, which transacted 74.2 million shares valued at N1.5 billion.

Access Bank traded 57.1 million equities worth N449.2 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 44.4 million stocks for N281.0 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 31.8 million shares valued at N66.7 million.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 88.13 points to 28,546.22 points from 28,634.35 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N46 billion to N14.921 trillion from N14.967 trillion.