Nigerian Stocks Begin Week with 0.13% Loss

By Dipo Olowookere

Activities resumed afresh on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday with investors chewing on the Q3 results released by Conoil Plc at the close of business last Friday.

The firm recorded a sterling performance, giving some investors hopes that this earning season would be positive.

However, the Conoil results failed to keep the Nigerian stocks in the green territory as the market closed trading with 0.13 percent loss.

This was mainly influenced by the 1.90 percent loss recorded by the industrial sector as it overpowered the gains posted by the banking index and oil and gas index, which rose by 0.72 percent and 0.92 percent respectively.

Insurance stocks put up a good performance yesterday, closing trading with 1.42 percent growth, the highest on Monday.

At the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) depressed by 43.5 points to close at 32,413.48 points, while the market capitalisation dropped N16 billion to finish at N11.833 trillion.

Business Post reports that the volume of shares transacted yesterday decreased by 43.72 percent from 162.4 million to 91.4 million, while the value went down by 57.08 percent from N2.2 billion to N961 million.

There were heavy transactions witnessed in the financial stocks as they led the activity chart with 63.7 million shares traded for N544 million, while consumer goods stocks followed with 13.4 million units sold for N355 million.

At the close of business, UBA emerged the most traded equities at the market, exchanging 14.6 million units worth N118.4 million.

It was followed by FCMB, which sold 11.9 million shares valued at N19.4 million, and Fidelity Bank, which exchanged 6.9 million equities for N13.1 million.

GTBank transacted 5.9 million shares for N216.9 million, while Honeywell Flour traded 4.4 million shares worth N5.6 million.

A look at the price movement chart on Monday showed that Unilever Nigeria was the day’s highest loser, shedding N2.30k of its share price to close at N41.20k per share.

It was followed by Nigerian Breweries, which lost N2 to settle at N86 per share, and Lafarge, which went down by N1.50k to end at N21.50k per share.

Fidson lost 60 kobo to settle at N5.40k per share, while Guinness Nigeria depreciated by 50 kobo to quote at N78.50k per share.

At the other side, Forte Oil topped the price gainers’ chart after appreciating by N2 to settle at N22.25k per share.

NASCON grew by N1.40k to finish at N19.90k per share, while Flour Mills rose by 40 kobo to end at N21.20k per share.

GTBank also appreciated by 40 kobo to end at N36.90k per share, while Dangote Sugar increased by 30 kobo to close at N15 per share.