Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
It was another day in red for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as selloffs in highly capitalized stocks like Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria pushed the market downward further by 0.66 percent on Thursday.
The announcement of a N1 per share interim dividend by Stanbic IBTC Holdings for the half year ended June 30, 2019 did nothing to push the market northwards and at the close of day, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 181.45 points to settle at 27,425.57 points, while the market capitalization decreased by N88.3 billion to close at N13.342 trillion.
Dangote Cement was the heaviest price loser yesterday with a price depreciation of N3 to finish at N162.50k per share, while MTN Nigeria trailed with a loss of N2.10k to close at N138.85k per unit.
Unilever Nigeria depreciated by N1 to end at N28 per share, Flour Mills went down by 80 kobo to close at N13.50k per unit, while UAC Nigeria fell by 45 kobo to close at N4.55k per share.
Conversely, Nestle Nigeria stayed as the highest price gainer, appreciating by N5 to finish at N1245 per share, while Forte Oil followed with a gain of N1.05k to close at N16.45k per share.
Total Nigeria improved by 60 kobo to end at N97.10k per share, Africa Prudential rose by 30 kobo to close at N3.80k per share, while FBN Holdings chalked up 15 kobo to settle at N4.95k per share.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions on the NSE on Thursday, the market breadth ended positive with 18 price gainers and 14 price losers.
But despite this, the activity level was low with the volume and value of trades going down by 12.05 percent and 45.14 percent respectively.
A total of 111.6 million shares worth N1.6 billion exchanged hands on the floor of the NSE yesterday in contrast with the 126.9 million units worth N2.9 billion of the previous session.
Dominating these transactions were Zenith Bank, which sold 19.1 million units of its shares valued at N353.5 million, and Lafarge Africa, which traded 17.7 million equities worth N250.7 million.
Access Bank exchanged 15.0 million shares for N96.9 million, Neimeth transacted 7.0 million shares for N3.3 million, while GTBank traded 5.8 million equities worth N155.8 million.
An analysis of the performance of the various sectors on Thursday showed a mixture of red and green.
The insurance sector was the highest gainer with 1.83 percent, while the oil and gas followed after rising by 0.10 percent, with the banking index closing 0.09 percent higher. However, the industrial goods sector fell by 0.74 percent, while the consumer goods industry depreciated by 0.19 percent.
