By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions at the nation’s stock market remained bearish on Wednesday, with profit taking activities by investors weighing on the market.
The local bourse has been in severe pain for some days now, calling for help, which is nowhere in sight. The market is seriously expecting a positive trigger that will take it out of the dungeon.
One of these triggers is the appointment of ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari, which should send a positive signal to investors that the present government was serious about making the economy better. Unfortunately, there are no strong indications that the President will name his cabinet members anytime soon. It is nearly getting to two months after he took oath of office on May 29, 2019.
Yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) further lost 0.56 percent, bringing the year-to-date loss to 10.78 percent.
During the midweek trading session, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down again by 158.08 points to finish at 28,042.80 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N77.1 billion to close at N13.667 trillion.
An analysis of the proceedings on Wednesday on the floor of the NSE showed that the market breadth ended negative due to the losses recorded by 26 stocks and the gains printed by 8 counters.
Business Post reports that Nestle Nigeria was the day’s worst performing stock, losing N5 of its share price to settle at N1245 per share.
Julius Berger went down by N1.95k to finish at N18 per unit, while Guinness Nigeria depreciated by N1.50 kobo to end at N46 per share.
Unilever Nigeria declined yesterday by N1 to settle at N32 per share, while Flour Mills depleted by 60 kobo to close at N14 per unit.
At the other side of the coin, UAC Nigeria topped the gainers’ table after appreciating on Wednesday by 10 kobo to finish at N5.90k per share.
It was followed by A.G. Leventis Nigeria, which went up by 3 kobo to settle at 33 kobo per unit, and Chams, which rose by 2 kobo to end at 27 kobo per share.
Courtville and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance both increased their share value by one kobo each to close respectively at 22 kobo and 31 kobo.
Despite the poor performance of the market yesterday, the volume and value of shares transacted by investors improved significantly by 12.24 percent and 116 percent respectively.
While the volume of trades rose from 217.1 million to 243.7 million, the total value increased from N1.8 billion to N3.9 billion.
This was influenced by activities around GTBank yesterday as the company sold a total of 77.5 million units of its stock for N2.3 billion.
FBN Holdings transacted 29.5 million shares worth N163.8 million, while UBA exchanged 13.6 million equities for N76.5 million.
In addition, Zenith Bank traded 13.3 million shares valued at N247.4 million, while ASACO Assurance exchanged 11.3 million units worth N3.9 million.
