Bears Maintains Grip on Local Bourse as Equities Lose 1.53%

By Dipo Olowookere

Negative sentiment continued yesterday on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as investors await the release of more 2017 financial results of companies listed on the local bourse.

By the time the market closed for business on Thursday, the stock market went down by 1.53 percent, shrinking the year-to-date return to 10.31 percent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 654.11 points to close at 42,185.38 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N234 billion to settle at N15.091 trillion.

Also, the market breadth finished negative with 39 stocks suffering price depreciation, while 15 equities experienced price appreciation.

Seplat suffered the biggest loss at the stock market yesterday after declining by N17.50k to close at N767.50k per share.

Mobil depreciated by N7.40k to finish at N176.30k per share, while Dangote Cement went down by N6.20k to end at N262.60k per share.

Furthermore, Unilever shed N4.90k to settle at N52.90k per share, while ConOil reduced by N1.75k to close at N33.45k per share.

On the flip side, it was a good day for Nestle as the stock appreciated by N15 to close at N1395 per share.

Nigerian Breweries grew by N2.10k to settle at N133 per share, while Dangote Sugar went up by 80k to end at N22 per share.

Stanbic IBTC advanced by 65k to finish at N49.80k per share, while NPF Microfinance Bank gained 18k to close at N2.2k per share.

Business Post reports that the volume of transactions increased yesterday by 8.34 percent while the value of trades went down by 11.93 percent.

A total of 404.7 million shares worth N6 billion were traded by investors on Thursday in 5,403 deals against the 373.5 million equities traded on Wednesday in 5,220 deals worth N6.9 billion.

Zenith Bank was the busiest stock at the market yesterday, trading 67 million shares valued at N1.9 billion.

FBN Holdings followed with 48.4 million equities sold for N544.2 million, and Regal Insurance, which exchanged 41.2 million shares for N11.5 million.

Fidelity Bank transacted 32.6 million shares valued at N83.4 million, while UBA sold 27 million equities for N318.4 million.