By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further closed bearish on Wednesday as investors still await the positive news to move the market to the green territory.
Prices of stocks at the market continue to fall as a result of the decision of some investors to take profit despite the dust raised by the 2019 general elections settling down.
Even news of the reduction in the monetary policy rate to 13.50 percent from 14 percent yesterday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) failed to excite traders.
At the close of the midweek trading session, the stock market went down by 0.67 percent to increase the year-to-date loss to 1.91 percent.
Business Post observed that apart from the industrial goods sector, which marginally rose by 0.03 percent, every other sector closed in red.
The insurance index dropped 1.32 percent, the banking index lost 0.9 8 percent, the oil and gas index fell by 0.84 percent, while the consumer goods index declined by 0.39 percent.
The market breadth, which ended negative again, finished with 19 price losers as against 11 price gainers.
Seplat dominated the losers’ chart with N10 of its share value lost to close at N540 per unit.
It was followed by Presco, which depreciated by N2.50k to end at N62 per share, and Stanbic IBTC, which also dropped N2.50k to settle at N46 per unit.
Guinness Nigeria lost N1.55k to close at N62.45k per share, while GTBank went down by N1.40k to quote at N36 per unit.
Conversely, Okomu Oil finished the day with N1 added to its share price to close at N80 per unit on Wednesday.
Cadbury Nigeria rose by 35 kobo to finish at N11.20k per share, while Zenith Bank appreciated by 30 kobo to end at N22 per share.
Union Bank garnered 20 kobo to settle at N7.10k per share, while Cutix increased by 18 kobo to close at N2.03k per share.
An analysis of the market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated yesterday by 209.41 points to close at 30,829.45 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N79 billion to settle at N11.592 trillion.
On the activity chart, the volume of shares traded by investors yesterday decreased by 8.54 percent to 131.4 million from 143.7 million, while the value dropped by 16.58 percent to N1.4 billion from N1.7 billion.
Financial stocks dominated the activity log, with Zenith Bank recording the highest turnover of 27.9 million shares worth N606.6 million.
Sterling Bank exchanged 25 million units for N58.7 million, while Access Bank traded 16.2 million equities worth N104.1 million.
UBA sold 11.4 million shares for N88.5 million, while FCMB transacted 7.4 million equities valued at N14.4 million.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka