Nigerian Equities Shed 0.15% as Diamond Bank Trades 215.8m Shares

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) finished 0.15 percent lower on Tuesday as President Muhammadu Buhari sought approval of the parliament to borrow $5.5 billion from the foreign markets to fund parts of the 2017 budget.

But despite the loss and the profit-taking recorded today at the market, the volume and value of shares traded by investors increased.

Business Post reports that 353.2 shares worth N3.3 billion were transacted today in 4,201 deals compared with the 262.2 million shares valued at N3 billion exchanged yesterday in 4,283 deals.

It was observed that banking stocks remained investors’ toast as Diamond Bank exchanged 215.8 million shares worth N215.7 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 15 million shares at N20.7 million, while FCMB transacted 14.6 million shares worth N15.3 million.

In addition, GTBank sold 13.8 million shares for N581 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 9.2 million shares valued at N232.6 million.

It was a bad day for Lafarge at the market on Tuesday, losing N2.39k of its share value to close at N54.50k per share.

Nigerian Breweries fell by N1.10k to end at N168.90k per share, while C&I Leading depreciated by 18k to finish at N1.74k per share.

FBN Holdings dropped 6k to close at N6.8k per share, and Diamond Bank went down by 5k to settle at N1 per share.

However, it was the opposite scenario for Flour Mills of Nigeria, which announced recently planning to commence first tranche of its N110 billion fresh capital raising.

At the close of trading activities on the floor of the NSE today, its share price rose by N1.13k to settle at N29 per share.

CCNN emerged the second highest gainer, advancing by 86k to close at N9.32k per share, while PZ Cussons came third with an addition of 50k to its share value to expand to N23.74k per share.

Cadbury gained 40k to close at N10.40k per share, while Northern Nigerian Flour Mills progressed by 27k to end at N5.77k per share.

Our correspondent reports that at the close of transactions on the floor of the NSE on Tuesday, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 55.33 points to settle at 36,776.60 points, while the market capitalisation declined by N19 billion to finish at N12.7 trillion.

Also, the year-to-date return trimmed down to 36.85 percent at the close of business today, while the market breadth closed flat with 19 gainers and losers.