Equities Market Closes Week Bearish With 0.46% Loss

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed for the week on Friday bearish by 0.46 percent, extending the negative trend to the fifth trading session.

Losses recorded by some blue-chip stocks as well as continued sell-off by investors ensured that the market remained in red throughout the week.

The year-to-date return at the close of business today stood at 12.77 percent, while the market breadth finished negative with 22 price gainers and 31 price losers.

The All-Share Index (ASI), which closed at 43,326.89 points yesterday, depreciated by 198.97 points today to end 43,127.92 points.

Also, the market capitalisation, which ended on Thursday at N15.548 trillion, went down by N71.4 billion to settle at N15.477 trillion.

Business Post reports that the volume and value of equities transacted by investors depreciated on Friday.

A total of 552.4 million shares worth N4.5 billion were traded by investors in 5,489 deals today compared with the 2.2 billion shares transacted yesterday in 5,468 deals valued at N7.5 billion.

Skye Bank was the most active stock at the market on Friday, selling a total of 149.6 million units worth N156 million.

It was followed by FBN Holdings, which sold 51.9 million shares for N631.2 million, and Diamond Bank, which transacted 37.6 million equities for N107.5 million.

FCMB exchanged 36.9 million shares worth N101.9 million, while Prestige Assurance traded 35 million equities valued at N19.6 million.

Nestle topped the losers’ chart on Friday after going down by N12.80k to close for the day at N1,360 per share.

It was trailed by Zenith Bank, which went down by N1.10k to finish at N30.90k per share, and GTBank, which fell by N1 to close at N48 per share.

CCNN lost 85k to end at N18.15k per share, while Cadbury Nigeria depreciated by 70k to finish at N14.80k per share.

At the other side, Unilever emerged the biggest price gainer after adding N1.85k to its share value to settle at N49.45k per share.

Dangote Cement followed after rising by N1.70k to finish at N266.70k per share, and Julius Berger, which appreciated by N1.25k to end at N27.30k per share.

Stanbic IBTC garnered 95k today to close at N46 per share, while GlaxoSmithKline also progressed by 95k to settle at N20.20k per share.