Investors Lose N33bn at Stock Market Thursday

By Dipo Olowookere

The value of the total shares held by investors at the nation’s stock market depreciated on Thursday by N33 billion as they continue to selloff to take profit after the gains recorded in the first two trading sessions of this week.

The sustained selling pressure on the market resulted in the 0.25 percent decline recorded yesterday, leaving the All-Share Index (ASI) to weaken by 67.55 points to close at 27,252.09 points, while the market capitalization to reduce by N32.9 billion to settle at N13.258 trillion.

Business Post reports that a total of 17 stocks closed in red during the trading session, while 13 counters ended with a green mark on them.

Claiming the top spot on the decliners’ log was Lafarge Africa, which lost 45 kobo to close at N14.50k per unit, while MTN Nigeria, which followed, also depreciated by 45 kobo to finish at N138.05k per share.

PZ Cussons and Dangote Sugar both declined by 30 kobo to end at N5.60k and N8.50k respectively, while Custodian Investment went down by 20 kobo to finish at N5.80k per unit.

At the other side of the table, Okomu Oil emerged as the day’s biggest price gainer, appreciating in value by N2.55k to settle at N44.15k per share.

Cadbury Nigeria improved its share price at the market by 60 kobo to close at N9.90k per unit, while UAC Nigeria appreciated by 50 kobo to trade at N5.50k per share.

GTBank gained 35 kobo to settle at N26.50k per share, while Forte Oil recovered from the previous day’s poor performance to rise by 20 kobo to close at N15.05k per share.

During trading yesterday, 133.3 million shares worth N2.4 billion were transacted by investors in 2,561 deals compared with the 250.5 million equities on Wednesday valued at N3.2 billion.

GTBank topped the activity with investors mopping up 35 million units of the bank’s shares valued at N925.9 million.

FBN Holdings traded 12.2 million equities for N55.1 million, a total of 10.1 million units of Guinness Nigeria stocks were sold for N377.8 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 9.0 million equities worth N156.7 million, while 6.2 million shares of Transcorp valued at N6.3 million exchanged hands at the market on Thursday.