Bearish Activities Keep Nigerian Stocks Depressed by 0.14%

By Dipo Olowookere

Nigerian stocks were further depressed on Tuesday, no thanks to selloffs embarked upon by investors, leading to a 0.14 percent at the close of transactions. The year-to-date loss expanded to 20.65 points.

During the last trading session of the month, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 30.32 points to 21,300.47 points from 21,330.79 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N16 billion N11.101 trillion from N11.117 trillion.

Selling pressure persisted in the banking and industrial goods sectors, losing 1.12 percent and 0.09 percent respectively. The insurance index appreciated by 1.63 percent, while the consumer goods counter gained 0.46 percent, with the energy sector closing flat.

Zenith Bank was the worst performing stock during the session, going down by 25 kobo to N11.70 per share. UAC Nigeria lost 20 kobo to sell at N7.20 per unit, GTBank declined by 20 kobo to trade at N17.70 per share, Lafarge Africa dropped 10 kobo to finish at N9.20 per unit, while Access Bank fell by 10 kobo to N5.95 per share.

At the other side, Unilever Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of 50 kobo to trade at N11 per share.

Flour Mills grew by 45 kobo to N21.25 per unit, GlaxoSmithKline appreciated by 40 kobo to sell at N4.40 per share, May & Baker garnered 19 kobo to trade at N2.14 per unit, while NEM Insurance added 18 kobo to its share price to sell at N2.07 per unit.

Yesterday, the volume of stocks transacted by investors reduced by 9.62 percent to 422.0 million from 466.9 million, while the value of shares traded went down by 10.81 percent to N1.7 billion from N1.9 billion, with the number of deals fell by 5.77 percent to 3,448 from 3,659.

Sterling Bank was the most traded stock during the trading day, selling 303.5 million units worth N348.8 million, while Zenith Bank traded 29.7 million shares valued at N350.4 million.

GTBank sold 16.9 million stocks for N301.2 million, UBA exchanged 14.5 million shares valued at N72.6 million, while FCMB transacted 9.7 million stocks worth N14.4 million.