By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday returned to the negative territory a day after halting its six-day consecutive bearish runs.
The stock market was trading green today with huge buying interest and as at 12 noon, it was 0.57 percent higher.
However, price depreciation suffered by some large cap stocks dragged the equity market back to the red zone.
By the time market activities were brought to an end by 2:30pm, the Lagos exchange went down by 0.39 percent with the year-to-date gain shrinking to 8.44 percent.
However, the market breadth still finished positive like yesterday, with a total of 33 stocks appreciating in price, while 24 equities suffered different depreciations.
Nestle Nigeria was the day’s heaviest price loser, decreasing by N33 to close at N1317 per share, while Dangote Cement fell by N9.90k to end at N255 per share.
Presco depreciated by N3.30k to finish at N68.70k per share, Nigerian Breweries lost N1.40k to settle at N126.50k per share, and PZ Cussons dropped 95k of its share value to close at N22.5k per share.
On the flip side, it was a good day for Lafarge as its stock gained N2.50k on Friday to settle at N50 per share.
GTBank rose by N1.95k to finish at N46.90k per share, while Zenith Bank grew by N1.40k to end at N30.20k per share.
Cadbury Nigeria increased by N1.30k to finish at N14.55k per share, while GlaxoSmithKline garnered N1.20k to close at N25.50k per share.
Looking at the market indices today, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 161.69 points to settle at 41,472.10 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N58.4 billion to finish at N14.982 trillion.
However, the volume of shares transacted by investors today appreciated, while the value of transactions declined.
Business Post reports that at the close of market, investors exchanged a total of 560 million shares worth N6.8 billion in 4,605 deals in contrast to the 542.4 million equities traded yesterday in 5,039 deals valued at N7.4 billion.
A further breakdown showed that AIICO got the most attention of investors on Friday, selling 139.3 million units worth N94.8 million.
It was followed by Access Bank, which traded 86.2 million shares valued at N970.9 million and Fidelity Bank, which transacted 39 million equities for N105.4 million.
FBN Holdings exchanged 37 million shares worth N452.3 million, while GTBank sold 34.3 million equities for N1.6 billion.
It is certain that the stock market is closing week-on-week negative again like it had done in the past few weeks.
The positive 2017 earnings of firms listed on the stock market have failed to trigger huge buying interests as expected.
However, there are hopes that next week, the market will bounce back as more companies release their financial figures for 2017.
Adedapo Adesanya