By Dipo Olowookere
For the sixth consecutive day, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in the negative territory after it depreciated by 1.08 percent on Monday, the first trading session of the week and new month.
The bearish trend was purely influenced by the losses printed by 24 equities led by Forte Oil and some blue-chip stocks across all sectors, which shrank the year-to-date return to 6.30 percent. Only eight stocks closed in the positive territory yesterday.
There were significant selloffs at the market on Monday, with Zenith Bank closing as the most traded equity after selling 47.5 million units worth N952.9 million.
GTBank sold 35.8 million shares valued at N1.1 billion, FCMB transacted 23.5 million units for N42.7 million, UBA traded 18.5 million stocks worth N139.7 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 16.5 million shares valued at N100.4 million.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions yesterday, the volume of shares traded by investors went down by 31 percent, while the value depreciated by 25 percent.
A total of 251.6 million equities worth N3.2 billion exchanged hands in 4,752 deals on Monday compared with the 348.6 million shares valued at N4.2 billion traded last Friday in 4,610 deals.
Forte Oil was the heaviest price loser on Monday, losing N2.05 to close at N18.55 per share, while Julius Berger trailed with a loss of N1.30 to settle at N21.20 per unit.
Cadbury Nigeria fell by N1.05 to finish at N9.70 per share, Zenith Bank depreciated by 95 kobo to end at N19.90 each, while Access Bank declined by 80 kobo to close at N9.10 per unit.
Conversely, UPDC Reit ended the day as the highest price gainer, rising by 25 kobo to close at N3.35 per share, while Union Bank gained 10 kobo to settle at N6 per unit.
Honeywell Flour rose by 9 kobo to finish at N1.06 per share, Law Union and Rock Insurance appreciated by 7 kobo to trade at 77 kobo per unit, while UAC Nigeria increased its share value by 5 kobo to sell at N8.95 per unit.
The All-Share Index (ASI) reduced on Monday by 310.13 points to close at 28,533.40 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N160 billion to settle at N14.697 trillion.
Business Post reports that all the five key sectors of the market closed bearish on Monday, with the banking index taking the lead with a loss of 3.85 percent.
The industrial goods index followed with a decline of 1.25 percent, oil/gas index fell by 0.77 percent, insurance index depreciated by 0.14 percent, while the consumer goods index went down by 0.07 percent.
Adedapo Adesanya