Consumer Goods Stocks Keep NSE Index in Danger Zone

By Dipo Olowookere

Activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained in the red territory on Wednesday after the market ended 0.37 percent lower to expand the year-to-date loss to 11.81 percent.

This was buoyed by the losses recorded by equities in the consumer goods sector despite the gains printed by stocks in the banking, insurance and industrial sectors.

Business Post reports that the consumer goods index went down at the midweek session by 3.52 percent while the oil and gas index depreciated by 0.02 percent.

At the close of business, the banking index rose by 0.71 percent, the insurance index increased by 0.87 percent, while the industrial index appreciated by 0.27 percent.

Nestle Nigeria topped the losers’ table at the trading session, shedding N29.50k from its share price to finish at N1270 per unit.

Nigerian Breweries lost N2 to close at N50 per share, Dangote Sugar went down by N1 to finish at N9.80k per unit, Berger Paints went down by 60 kobo to end at N5.70k per share, while Custodian Investment declined by 55 kobo to settle at N5.55k per unit.

At the other side, Julius Berger topped the gainers’ chart after adding N1.85k to its share value to finish at N20.6k per share.

Forte Oil gained N1.65k to end at N19.65k per unit, CCNN improved by 35 kobo to close at N12.30k per share, Access Bank appreciated by 25 kobo to settle at N6.55k per unit, while Ecobank rose by 20 kobo to exchange at N8.20k per share.

An analysis of the main market indicators showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 102.31 points to finish at 27,718.26 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N50.7 billion to settle at N13.508 trillion, lower than N13.558 trillion in the previous session.

Despite the market closing depressed yesterday, the activity level improved as the volume and value of transactions increased by 62.31 percent and 85.13 percent respectively.

A total of 251.9 million shares worth N4.1 billion were traded on Wednesday in 3,937 deals compared with the 155.2 million equities valued at N2.2 billion exchanged in 3,192 deals on Tuesday.

Zenith Bank traded the highest number of shares at the market during the midweek session, exchanging 39.1 million units worth N718.8 million.

FBN Holdings transacted 34.8 million shares valued at N197.5 million, UBA traded 27.7 million equities worth N163.7 million, GTBank exchanged 23.5 million units for N667.6 million, while Transcorp traded 23.3 million shares worth N22.1 million.