By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended Tuesday’s trading in the red territory again for the seventh consecutive session, losing 0.31 percent.
News of the shareholder agreement signed by Seplat yesterday was not enough to provide the needed bullish trigger today as selling pressure persist.
Business Post reports that the banking sector was the most hit at the stock market today, losing 1.06 percent at the close of market.
At the close of transactions on Tuesday, August 14, 2018, the Nigerian stock market, which gained over 42 percent last year, has lost 7.73 percent this year.
Today, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 111.05 points to settle at 35,288.23 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N45 billion to finish at N12.883 trillion.
Like the previous day, the market breadth ended negative with 34 equities depreciating in value against the 13 appreciating stocks.
Flour Mills of Nigeria topped the losers log on Tuesday after declining by N2 to settle for the day at N22 per share.
UAC of Nigeria followed with a loss of N1.35k to finish at N12.65k per share, while Berger Paints went down by 75 kobo to end at N7.20k per share.
Northern Nigeria Flour Mills depreciated by 70 kobo to close at N6.50k per share, Eterna Oil also fell by 70 kobo to settle at N6.50k per share.
Conversely, International Breweries emerged the biggest price gainer after growing by N1.75k to close at N35.20k per share.
NASCON increased by 55 kobo to settle at N20.50k per share, while Custodian Investment rose by 51 kobo to finish at N5.64k per share.
Unilever Nigeria appreciated by 40 kobo to end at N53 per share, while UAC Property went up by 10 kobo to close at N1.90k per share.
The Financial Services sector topped the activity chart on Tuesday, accounting for 72 percent of total volume traded, while the Consumer Goods sector followed, accounting for 7.10 percent of the total turnover volume.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) emerged the most traded equity, selling 26.9 million units worth N250.7 million.
LASACO Insurance followed with 12.2 million equities sold for N3.7 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 11.5 million shares valued at N108.9 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 8.3 million units worth N14.3 million, while GTBank transacted 7.5 million shares valued at N289.7 million.
In all, the total volume of shares traded at the floor of the exchange on Tuesday increased by 2.54 percent to 164.5 million units of stocks from 160.4 million, while the value reduced by 27.19 percent to N1.6 billion from N2.2 billion.
