Stock Market in ‘Distress’ by 0.72% as Investors ‘Cash Out’ N148bn

By Dipo Olowookere

For the second straight day, the stock market in Nigeria closed bearish with a loss of 0.72 per cent on Tuesday on the back of sustained profit-taking.

This left the market breadth negative as the bears outnumbered the bulls with 22 price losers and 16 price gainers.

Only two of the five key sectors of the market closed bullish yesterday and they were the energy and banking sectors, which closed higher by 0.26 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively.

The industrial goods counter depreciated 2.57 per cent, the insurance space declined by 1.37 per cent, while the consumer goods sector went down by 0.05 per cent.

Business Post reports that Portland Paints recorded the highest slip yesterday, 9.85 per cent, closing at N2.47 and was trailed by Champion Breweries, which dropped 9.68 per cent to N1.96.

SCOA Nigeria went down by 9.30 per cent to settle at N1.95, Regency Alliance Insurance reduced by 8.11 per cent to sell for 34 kobo, while Sunu Assurances decreased by 7.41 per cent to 50 kobo.

The highest price gainer of the session was The Initiates as its share price rose by 10.00 per cent to 44 kobo. ABC Transport also increased by 10.00 per cent to 44 kobo.

Eterna gained 9.93 per cent to sell for N7.97, Transcorp Hotel appreciated by 9.85 per cent to N3.57, while Wema Bank grew by 5.45 per cent to 58 kobo.

A look at the transactions of the day showed that investors traded 204.7 million shares worth N1.8 billion in 3,940 deals in contrast to the 357.7 million shares worth N3.6 billion transacted in 4,394 deals on Monday.

Unlike the preceding session, Courtville was the most traded stock on Tuesday with the sale of 27.1 million units of its shares valued at N5.5 million.

Fidelity Bank exchanged 23.4 million shares for N54.2 million, Zenith Bank transacted 18.6 million equities worth N435.5 million, Access Bank traded 11.5 million stocks valued at N94.6 million, while Transcorp exchanged 109 million shares worth N9.6 million.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 283.95 points to 39,022.52 points from 39,306.47 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N148 billion to N20.340 trillion from N20.488 trillion.