Negative Sentiment Remains on NSE, Sheds 1.53%

By Dipo Olowookere

The profit-taking at the nation’s stock market continued on Tuesday and this left the bourse closing with 30 price losers and 17 price gainers.

The poor performance of these 30 stocks led by Nestle Nigeria wounded the market by 1.53 per cent yesterday to reduce the year-to-date gain to 27.57 per cent.

Business Post reports that the 3.33 per cent loss posted by industrial goods, 3.21 per cent loss by consumer goods, 2.17 per cent decline by insurance and the 0.87 per cent decline by the energy sectors overpowered the 0.75 per cent growth recorded by the banking sector.

At the close of transactions, Nestle Nigeria depreciated by N50 to close at N1400 per share, Dangote Cement dropped N12.90 to sell at N187.10 per unit, Nigerian Breweries depreciated by N4 to N54 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria lost N1 to trade at N9.15 per share and International Breweries declined by 46 kobo to sell at N6.54 per share.

At the other end, Conoil sat on top of the gainers’ table with a price appreciation of N1.80 to finish at N20.85 per unit and was trailed by GTBank, which gained N1 to trade at N37 per unit.

In addition, Dangote Sugar rose by N1 to N21 per unit, GlaxoSmithKline appreciated by 65 kobo to N7.45 per share, while BOC Gases gained 53 kobo to quote at N5.85 per unit.

At the market yesterday, investors traded 9.4 billion shares worth N12.0 billion in 8,712 deals compared with the 668.5 million shares worth N7.9 billion traded in 10,319 deals on Monday. This indicated that the trading volume rose by 1,300.09 per cent, the trading value grew by 53.15 per cent but the number of deals declined by 15.57 per cent.

An off-market deal in the shares of UPDC yesterday made the company’s securities to be the most active as it traded 8.5 billion units valued at N6.0 billion.

Jaiz Bank transacted 304.7 million shares worth N222.2 million, Transcorp transacted 96.0 million stocks worth N97.9 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 82.4 million shares for N613.8 million, while UBA traded 52.8 million equities worth N440.6 million.

The All-Share Index (ASI) further reduced on Tuesday by 531.25 points to 34,242.83 points from 34,774.08 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N278 billion to N17.893 trillion from N18.171 trillion.