Equity Market Remains in Red as Investors Lose N19b

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Transactions at the Nigerian equity market closed on Friday in the negative territory, extending the fall to the second trading session.

Business Post reports that investors continued with profit taking, making the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to fall by 0.15 percent with the year-to-date return ending at 35.43 percent.

Total suffered a heavy loss today, depreciating by N12.25k to settle at N232.75k per share. This comes a day after the board of the oil firm proposed an interim dividend of N3.

Nigerian Breweries continued its fall today by N3 to close at N152 per share, while International Breweries further slumped by N2.58k to finish at N49.20k per share.

Forte Oil declined by N2.1k to end at N38.29k per share, and Unilever depreciated by N1.22k to close at N42.78k per share.

Conversely, Nestle chalked up N30 to its share price to close at N1230 per share, leaving GTBank with only 30k to gain to close at N42 per share.

BOC Gas appreciated by 19k to finish at N4.15k per share, UACN Property Development Company rose by 12k to end at N2.70k per share, while Axa Mansard progressed by 9k to settle at N2.2k per share.

At the close of business at the stock market on Friday, the volume and value of shares traded by investors broadly depreciated.

A total of 250.9 million shares valued at N3 billion were exchanged at the market today in 3,968 deals compared with the 356.8 million units transacted yesterday in 4,384 deals worth N4.2 billion.

However, FBN Holdings was the most traded equity in terms of volume, exchanging 76.4 million shares worth N473.9 million.

FCMB sold 20.4 million shares for N21.8 million, while Diamond Bank traded 14.9 million shares at N15.5 million.

Fidelity Bank transacted 13.6 million shares for N22.6 million, and Wema Bank exchanged 11.8 million shares worth N5.9 million.

A look at the market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 55.22 points to close at 36,462.26 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N19 billion to settle at N12.6 trillion.