MTN Nigeria, UPDC, Others Bring Down Stock Market by 0.68%

By Dipo Olowookere

Nigeria’s main stock market was down by 0.68 per cent on Friday, thanks to the profit-taking in shares of MTN Nigeria, UPDC and 13 others.

The equity price of UPDC went down by 9.47 per cent to N1.53, Livestock Feeds dropped 8.68 per cent to N2.00, Prestige Assurance fell by 8.51 per cent to 43 kobo, GlaxoSmithKline declined by 6.25 per cent to N6.00, while NPF Microfinance Bank decreased by 5.26 per cent to N1.80.

These stocks and others suppressed the gains posted by 16 equities during the trading session led by Veritas Kapital, which grew by 9.52 per cent to sell for 23 kobo.

Red Star Express appreciated by 6.38 per cent to trade at N3.50, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance rose by 5.45 per cent to close at 58 kobo, Regency Assurance improved by 5.26 per cent to 40 kobo, while FTN Cocoa appreciated by 4.76 per cent to 44 kobo.

Business Post observed that the insurance, banking and consumer goods sectors appreciated yesterday by 0.73 per cent, 0.62 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively, while the energy and industrial goods counters closed flat.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 296.27 points to finish at 43,253.01 points compared with the previous day’s 43,549.28 points, while the market capitalisation shed N155 billion to end at N22.572 trillion in contrast to Thursday’s N22.727 trillion.

At the trading day, a total of 314.9 million equities worth N4.7 billion exchanged hands in 3,400 deals versus the 161.3 million equities worth N2.1 billion transacted a day earlier in 3,574 deals, indicating that the volume and value of transactions increased by 95.19 per cent and 117.28 per cent respectively, while the number of deals decreased by 4.87 per cent.

A breakdown showed that FBN Holdings was the busiest stock at the market on Friday as it traded 129.8 million units valued at N1.5 billion, followed by Stanbic IBTC, which traded 19.5 million units worth N761.2 million.

GTCO transacted 18.4 million shares worth N507.0 million, Flour Mills exchanged 16.3 million stocks valued at N503.4 million, while FCMB sold 15.8 million equities valued at N49.1 million.