Nigerian Stocks Close 0.76% Lower on Sustained Selloff

By Dipo Olowookere

Profit-taking activities persisted on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last Friday, leaving the market to close 0.76 percent lower with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns finishing at -1 percent.

Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) slipped to the 37,000 region after shedding 290.07 points to settle at 37,862.53 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N105 billion to finish at N13.716 trillion.

It was observed that the volume of equities transacted on the last trading day of last week declined by 38.38 percent, while the value shares exchanged depreciated by 65.16 percent.

A total of 167.2 million shares were bought and sold by investors in 3,847 deals worth N1.4 billion in contrast to the 271.4 million equities transacted in the previous session valued at N4.1 billion.

At the close of transactions, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 110.5 million shares exchanged for N741 million, while the Consumer Goods sector followed next with 32.4 million equities transacted for N297 million.

The shares of Fidelity Bank got the most attention of investors at the market, trading a total of 26.6 million units for N60.6 million.

It was followed by Honeywell Flour, which sold 19.4 million shares valued at N41.6 million, and United Capital, which exchanged 15.6 million equities worth N50 million.

FBN Holdings traded 10.6 million shares valued at N112.4 million, while NEM Insurance transacted 9.3 million equities for N27.9 million.

On the price movement chart, Dangote Cement emerged the heaviest price loser, going down by N5.30k to close at N225 per share.

It was trailed by Unilever, which declined by N2.25k to finish at N50.75k per share, and Forte Oil, which depreciated by N1.75k to settle at N34.05k per share.

Nigerian Breweries decreased by N1.50k to end at N110.50k per share, while Lafarge reduced by N1 to close at N39 per share.

Conversely, Okomu Oil topped the gainers’ chart after adding N4 to its share value to finish at N94.20k per share.

CCNN improved by 75 kobo to close at N24.75k per share, while GTBank grew by 65 kobo to settle at N40.70k per share.

Zenith Bank increased by 20 kobo to close at N25.90k per share, while NEM Insurance increased by 14 kobo to end at N3.04k per share.