Nigerian Stock Market in ‘Python Dance’ Mood, Further Falls by 0.38%

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Negative sentiments still persisted on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today amid tension in the South Eastern part of the country caused by the deployment of troops to the region for the Operation Python Dance II exercise by the Nigerian Army.

The army started the exercise last Friday to clampdown on members of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) led by their leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, who want to break away from the country. The military intervention has however received mixed reactions.

But at the resumption of transactions on the floor of the NSE on Monday, bears still held their grip on the market, closing 0.38 percent lower to reduce the year-to-date gain to 29.76 percent.

Business Post recalls that last Friday, the stock market lost 1.84 percent at the close of activities with investors losing N226 billion.

Today, the market capitalisation further went down by N46.5 billion to settle at N12 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 132.50 points to close at 34,873.07 points.

The market, which closed with 14 advancing stocks and 18 depreciating equities, saw Seplat emerging the heaviest decliner, crashing by N24.3k to finish at N456.76k per share.

It was followed by Nigerian Breweries, which fell by N5 to close at N170 per share, and Presco, which slumped by N2.49k to end at N58 per share.

Lafarge declined by 97k to settle at N49 per share, while Oando lost 30k of its share value to finish at N5.75k per share.

On the flip side, GTBank topped the gainers’ chart with N1 growth to close at N38 per share, while Cadbury moved up by 49k to finish at N11 per share.

Furthermore, Newrest ASL Nigeria (Air Service) grew by 32k to end at N6.82k per share, Stanbic IBTC advanced by 30k to finish at N39.50k per share, and Ecobank increased by 20k to close at N18 per share.

Though the volume of shares traded by investors slightly went up today, the value went down by 50 percent as a total of 162.7 million equities exchanged hands today in 3,225 deals worth N1.5 billion against 160 million shares transacted last Friday in 3,367 deals valued at N3 billion.

A breakdown of these transactions showed Access Bank emerging the most traded stocks in terms of volume, exchanging 35.4 million units worth N354.2 million.

It was trailed by Meyer, which moved 18.9 million shares valued at N13.2 million, and Fidelity Bank, which transacted 18.6 million shares valued at N24 million.

FBN Holdings traded 13.8 million shares at N75.7 million, while FCMB exchanged 12.6 million shares valued at N13.2 million.