Cautious Trading Dominates Nigerian Stock Exchange

By Dipo Olowookere

Fears of a possible lockdown of the Nigerian economy as a result of the rising number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is making investors tread carefully at the stock market.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday depreciated by 0.29 percent, no thanks to profit-taking by market participants, who do not want their hands to get burnt.

At the first trading session of the week, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 72.83 points to 24,753.92 points from 24,826.75 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N38 billion to N12.913 trillion from N12.951 trillion.

There were 26 price losers on Monday as against 11 price gainers, with the laggards’ log led by Stanbic IBTC, which depreciated by N2.75 to finish at N30.25 per share.

Nigerian Breweries lost N1 to sell at N37 per unit, BUA Cement also crashed by N1 to trade at N43 per share, Ardova declined by 70 kobo to quote at N13.05 per share, while Flour Mills shrank by 70 kobo to N19.70 per share.

On the gainers’ side, Nestle Nigeria came top with an addition of N84.50 to its share value to close for the day at N1,179 per share.

Fidson gained 23 kobo to settle at N3.30 per unit, Africa Prudential rose by 21 kobo to sell at N4.21 per share, Sterling Bank grew by 8 kobo to sell at N1.28 per unit, while FCMB gained 8 kobo to trade at N1.80 per share.

Yesterday, the volume and value of transactions depreciated by 24.67 percent and 32.26 percent respectively, while the number of deals increased by 5.75 percent.

A total of 124.7 million stocks worth N1.3 billion exchanged hands in 3,843 deals in contrast to the previous session’s 165.5 million stocks worth N2.0 billion transacted in 3,634 deals.

Japual Oil caught the most attention of investors yesterday, emerging the active equity by volume with 13.6 million units of its shares traded for N3.3 million.

GTBank exchanged 11.4 million shares worth N260.5 million, Zenith Bank transacted 10.4 million equities valued at N168.8 million, UBA traded 8.0 million stocks for N50.5 million, while Chams sold 7.9 million shares worth N1.9 million.