Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Investors at the nation’s stock market were left in severe pain on Tuesday after they had expected that the market would maintain the positive momentum it recorded at Monday’s trading session.
But activities of profit takers did not let this dream come true as selloffs in stocks like MTN Nigeria, GTBank, UBA, Lafarge Africa and eight others inflicted a cut of about 0.58 percent deep on the exchange at the close of transactions.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 140.06 points to 26,244.39 points from 26,384.45 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N68 billion to N12.776 trillion from N12.844 trillion.
MTN Nigeria, which was the heaviest price loser, went down by N2.05 to finish at N126.95 per unit, while GTBank followed with a loss of 70 kobo to close at N25.50 per share.
Lafarge Africa went down by 60 kobo to settle at N14.35 per unit, while NAHCO and UBA lost 10 each to close at N2.35 per share and N5.75 per share respectively.
At the other side, the gainers’ chart had 10 members on Tuesday, with GlaxoSmithKline leading the pack after adding 50 kobo to its share price to close at N6.30 per unit.
Red Star Express gained 40 kobo to close at N4.45 per unit, Nigerian Breweries appreciated by 20 kobo to end at N46.25 per unit, Africa Prudential rose by 8 kobo to finish at N3.90 per share, while AIICO Insurance improved by 6 kobo to close at 69 kobo per share.
Like in the previous session, the activity chart remained mixed with the volume of transactions going down by 44.87 percent as well as the number of deals, which dropped by 23.15 percent, while the value of the trades increased by 156.66 percent.
A total of 267.9 million shares worth N2.8 billion were traded by investors yesterday in 2,967 deals in contrast to the 485.9 million equities valued at N1.1 billion exchanged the previous day in 3,861 deals.
Banking stocks were very busy on Tuesday as they dominated the activity log, with FCMB topping the table with 51.6 million units of its shares sold for N82.5 million.
Zenith Bank traded 43.1 million units worth N732.0 million, GTBank exchanged 42.3 million valued at N1.1 billion, Access Bank transacted 37.2 stocks for N272.0 million, while Sterling Bank traded 34.8 million shares valued at N68.0 million.
An analysis by Business Post of the five major sectors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated three of them closed bearish, while the two others finished bullish.
The banking, energy and industrial goods sectors closed lower by 0.94 percent, 0.16 percent and 0.95 percent respectively, while insurance and the consumer goods indices finished higher by 0.77 percent and 0.08 percent respectively.
