All-Share Index Drops 0.35% as 26 Stocks Suffer Losses

By Dipo Olowookere

The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 0.35 percent or 93.23 points on Wednesday to close at 26,790.10 points against 26,883.33 points of the previous session.

Similarly, the market capitalisation, which ended at N12.975 trillion on Tuesday, decreased by N45 billion or 0.35 percent yesterday to settle at 12.930 trillion as investors take profit.

A total of 189.9 million shares worth N1.5 billion exchanged hands at the session in 3,410 deals compared with the 208.0 million stocks worth N3.1 billion transacted in 4,081 deals the previous day, indicating a 9.58 percent decline in the trading volume, 52.18 percent decrease in the value of trades and 16.44 percent decline in the number of trades.

Apart from the insurance sector, which appreciated by 0.54 percent, every other index closed bearish, with the energy index taking the lead with 1.07 percent fall. The banking index depreciated by 0.49 percent, the consumer goods sector went down by 0.20 percent, while the industrial goods industry dropped 0.08 percent.

A total of 26 stocks went down at the midweek session against 19 price gainers.

Cadbury Nigeria was the heaviest price loser, going down by 90 kobo to finish at N9 per unit, while GlaxoSmithKline went down by 60 kobo to close at N5.70 per share.

FBN Holdings fell by 45 kobo to finish at N6.50 per share, Dangote Cement crashed by 40 kobo to settle at N143.60 per unit, while UAC Nigeria also declined by 40 kobo to end at N7 per share.

At the other end, Zenith Bank topped the price risers’ log after adding 15 kobo to its share value to close at N18.50 per unit, while Cutix gained 11 kobo to finish at N1.44 per unit.

The trio of Airtel Africa, GTBank and CAP appreciated by 10 kobo each to close at N298.90 per share, N29.90 per share and N24.30 per share respectively.

Transcorp was the busiest stock on Wednesday, trading the highest volume with 26.4 million units worth N26.6 million, while Zenith Bank followed with 22.5 million units sold for N416.4 million.

Chams traded 18.9 million equities worth N7.8 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 11.1 million shares valued at N22.2 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 10.5 million units for N70.0 million.