By Dipo Olowookere
Things further went south on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday after 13 stocks led by Cutix and Neimeth recorded various price declines.
The market lost 0.06 per cent in the session to expand the year-to-date loss to 9.57 per cent as a result of the selloffs.
At the close of transactions, it reduced the All-Share Index (ASI) by 14.24 points to 24,273.42 points from 24,287.66 points and sliced the market capitalisation by N7 billion to N12.663 trillion from N12.670 trillion.
The market breadth finished negative yesterday following the depreciation of 13 stocks and price growth recorded by 12 equities.
Cutix led the losers’ chart after depreciating by 18 kobo to trade at N1.64 per unit, while Neimeth lost 15 kobo to sell at N1.35 per share.
Ecobank dropped 10 kobo to finish at N4.25 per share, Access Bank went down by 10 kobo to quote at N6.10 per unit, while Zenith Bank depreciated by 10 kobo to finish at N15.65 per unit.
Conversely, Ardova finished the session as the best performing stock after gaining 90 kobo to settle at N13.45 per share.
On the news of COVID-19 vaccine progress abroad, the share price of GlaxoSmithKline rose by 45 kobo to N5.20 per unit, while Fidson, another healthcare stock, gained 25 kobo to sell at N2.90 per unit.
During the trading session, Unity Bank appreciated by 4 kobo to finish at 49 kobo per share, while Fidelity Bank grew by 3 kobo to N1.79 per share.
The low prices of stocks at the market gave investors the opportunity to garner more equities yesterday, leading to a 90.09 per cent rise in the volume of trades to 305.1 million units from the preceding session’s 160.5 million units.
Also, the value of transactions increased by 42.62 per cent to N2.1 billion from N1.5 billion, while the number of deals grew by 8.71 per cent to 3,258 deals from 2,997 deals.
Sovereign Insurance was the most active stock of the day as investors traded 75.6 million units valued at N15.1 million.
UBA traded 70.7 million shares for N441.9 million, GTBank exchanged 37.0 million stocks valued at N795.1 million, Japaul Oil transacted 17.4 million units worth N3.7 million, while Zenith Bank traded 14.2 million shares for N222.6 million.
