Market Loses N278bn as Investors Offload BUA Cement Stocks, Others

By Dipo Olowookere

It was a bad day for stock investors in Nigeria on Friday as the gains posted a day earlier was quickly erased as a result of the 1.37 per cent loss recorded at the session.

This decline was mainly buoyed by the selling pressure on industrial goods stocks led by BUA Cement, contributing chiefly to the 4.40 per cent depreciation suffered by its sector’s index.

Combined with the 0.22 per cent decline recorded by the energy index, they outweighed the growth printed by the banking (2.80), insurance (0.94) and the consumer goods (0.08) counters yesterday.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 532.45 points to 38,382.39 points from 38,914.84 points, while the market capitalisation depleted by N278 billion to N20.082 trillion from N20.360 trillion.

Price movement chart

During the session, Lasaco Assurance topped the losers’ chart after its share price went down by 6.92 per cent to N1.21 and was deputised by BUA Cement, which lost 6.42 per cent to trade at N69.95.

Neimeth depreciated by 6.32 per cent to N1.78, Courtville went down by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo, while Oando declined by 4.39 per cent to N3.05.

At the other end. Ikeja Hotel topped the gainers’ log after its equity price appreciated by 10.00 per cent to trade at N1.10, with Eterna trailed after its value grew by 9.84 per cent to N5.58.

United Capital gained 7.37 per cent to close at N5.10, Union Bank appreciated by 4.95 per cent to N5.30, while Africa Prudential gained 4.90 per cent to sell at N5.35.

Activity table

Business Post reports that apart from the number of deals, which improved by 6.71 per cent to 4,311 deals from 4,040 deals, the other parameters of the activity chart closed lower.

The trading volume reduced on Friday by 80.21 per cent to 290.6 million units from 1.5 billion units, the trading value went down by 31.36 per cent to N4.0 billion from N5.9 billion.

Zenith Bank was the darling of investors during the trading day as it transacted 66.1 million shares valued at N1.5 billion.

Unity Bank transacted 51.8 million stocks for N37.3 million, GTBank exchanged 39.4 million equities for N1.2 billion, AIICO Insurance traded 26.8 million shares for N33.2 million, while Access Bank transacted 12.7 million stocks worth N101.1 million.