By Dipo Olowookere
The news of Nigerian entering a recession on Saturday expectedly had a negative effect on the stock market when activities resumed on Monday.
The nation’s economy contracted by 3.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 and coupled with the 6.1 per cent contraction recorded in the second quarter of the year, it went into a recession.
Yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 0.04 per cent and from the mood of the market, investors offloaded most equities in their portfolios.
This resulted in the negative closure in the market breadth as only five stocks appreciated in value compared with the 46 price losers.
Airtel Africa gained N25 to close at N525 per share, Nestle Nigeria appreciated by N25 to finish at N1400 per unit, Dangote Cement rose by N6.60 to trade at N199.80 per share, BUA Cement gained N2.55 to finish at N56 per unit, while NEM Insurance appreciated by 2 kobo to settle at N2.60 per share.
The highest price loser yesterday was Stanbic IBTC, which depreciated by N3.45 to close at N39.55 per unit, Lafarge Africa declined by NN2.45 to settle at N22.05 per share, Flour Mills went down by N2.35 to N25.40 per unit, Guinness Nigeria fell by N1.90 to N18 per unit, while Ardova lost N1.50 to sell at N13.50 per share.
During the trading day, the trading volume rose by 64.69 per cent to 568.0 million units from 344.9 million units, the trading value increased by 73.52 per cent to N7.3 billion from N4.2 billion, while the number of deals appreciated by 35.99 per cent to 8,928 deals from 6,565 deals.
Business Post reports that Zenith Bank was the most traded stock at the market, trading 79.7 million units worth N1.9 billion and was followed by FBN Holdings, which sold 72.8 million shares valued at N499.6 million.
Access Bank transacted 65.7 million equities for N520.3 million, UBA traded 47.0 million stocks worth N360.0 million, while GTBank exchanged 37.1 million shares valued at N1.3 billion.
At the market yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 17.08 points to settle at 34,119.74 points as against 34,136.82 points of the previous session, while the market capitalisation reduced by N9 billion to close at N17.829 trillion versus N17.838 trillion of last Friday.
Apart from the industrial goods sector, which appreciated on Monday by 2.72 per cent, all other sectors depreciated with the banking sector the heaviest loser after shedding 6.78 per cent.
The consumer goods counter declined by 2.72 per cent, the energy space lost 1.92 per cent, while the insurance sector went down by 0.51 per cent.
Adedapo Adesanya