Dangote Cement, Guinness, MTN Crash Stock Market by 0.25%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 0.25 percent on Wednesday owing to the poor performances of large cap stocks like Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank and others.

The losses posted by these stocks pulled back the All-Share Index (ASI) by 69.19 points to 27,283.05 points from 27,352.24 points, while the market capitalization was trimmed by N33.7 billion to N13.281 trillion from N13.315 trillion.

Like the previous session, the level of activity on the NSE improved at the mid-week session as the volume and value of the trades significantly rose by 200.14 percent and 180.51 percent respectively, though the number of deals decreased slightly by 0.92 percent.

A total of 462.3 million shares worth N7.9 billion exchanged hands yesterday in 2,895 deals compared with the 154.0 million shares valued at N2.8 billion transacted in the previous session in 2,922 deals.

Business Post reports that Access Bank attracted the most attention of investors at the session, closing with a turnover of 133.5 million units sold for N926.4 million.

Custodian Investment traded 88.6 million shares worth N558.4 million, Nigerian Breweries sold 71.1 million equities valued at N3.7 billion, FBN Holdings exchanged 31.3 million shares worth N168.9 million, while Union Bank transacted 19.2 million equities valued at N126.7 million.

On the losers’ table, Dangote Cement claimed the top spot with a loss of N2 to close at N152 per share, while Guinness Nigeria fell by N1.05 to finish at N34.45 per unit.

MTN Nigeria depreciated by N1 to finish at N138 per share, SAHCO went down by 46 kobo to settle at N4.19 per share, while Zenith Bank depreciated by 25 kobo to finish at N18.30 per unit.

On the flip side, International Breweries topped the gainers’ chart after adding 60 kobo to its share value to settle at N12.60 per unit, while Nigerian Breweries gained 50 kobo to end at N52.50 per share.

Custodian Investment rose by 45 kobo to finish at N6.30 per unit, while Dangote Sugar and Access Bank improved by 35 kobo each to close at N10.70 and N7.20 respectively.