Banking, Industrial Goods Stocks Keep NSE Index in Red

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further closed bearish on Thursday as stocks in the banking and industrial goods sectors dragged the market lower by 0.06 percent.

The bearish closure yesterday occurred despite the market breadth ending positive for the second consecutive day as a total of 11 equities recorded gains compared with the eight price losers.

GTBank was the day’s highest price loser. The lender had its stocks losing 35 kobo each to close at N26.65 per share despite the firm churning out a positive Q3 earnings on Wednesday.

Dangote Flour went down by 20 kobo to finish at N23 per unit, Zenith Bank and UBA went down by 15 kobo each to settle at N17.70 per share and N5.80 per share respectively, while Lafarge Africa depreciated by 5 kobo to end at N15.30 per unit.

On the other side, MTN Nigeria claimed the top spot on the gainers’ chart after going up by 50 kobo to settle at N129 per share, while Flour Mills trailed with a 35 kobo growth to close at N15.10 per unit.

FCMB appreciated by 11 kobo to finish at N1.70 per share, Wapic Insurance gained 3 kobo to trade at 35 kobo per share, while Fidelity Bank rose by 2 kobo to finish at N1.70 per unit.

Business Post reports that the level of activity remained mixed during the session with the volume of shares traded going up by 4.06 percent and the value going down by 19.63 percent.

At the close of transactions, investors exchanged a total of 144.1 million shares worth N2.9 billion in 2,347 deals compared with the 138.5 million equities valued at N3.6 billion transacted the previous day in 2,487 deals.

During the session, the banking index depreciated by 0.86 percent, while the industrial goods barometer went down by 0.08 percent.

However, the insurance index increased in the day by 0.73 percent, while the consumer goods sector appreciated by 0.07 percent, with the oil and gas index closing flat.

For the major market gauges, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 15.91 points to settle at 26,456.29 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N7.7 billion to finish at N12.879 trillion.