Nigerian Stocks Remain Under Pressure, Lose 0.59%

By Dipo Olowookere

The local equity market remained bearish on Tuesday as investors sustained their profit taking activities during the session, plunging the bourse by 0.59 percent at the close of business.

Business Post reports that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was depressed further as a result of selloffs in the major sectors of the market, with banking taking the lead with a loss of 2.18 percent.

Energy stocks lost 1.35 percent, industrial goods equities went down by 0.57 percent, while stocks in the consumer goods fell by 0.28 percent. Only the insurance sector appreciated yesterday, rising by 1.54 percent.

Total Nigeria was the heaviest price decliner, losing N10 to close at N107 per unit, while Flour Mills depreciated by N1.30 to sell at N21.15 per share.

GTBank depleted by N1.10 to trade at N31 per unit, Stanbic IBTC crashed by N1 to quote at N41.50 per share, while share price of GlaxoSmithKline reduced by 55 kobo to trade at N5.45 per unit.

At the other side, Julius Berger improved at the market on Tuesday by N2 to close at N22.15 per unit, while NAHCO appreciated by 26 kobo to settle at N2.95 per share.

Vitafoam and NEM Insurance gained 20 kobo each to sell at N5.50 per share and N2.40 per share respectively, while Africa Prudential garnered 7 kobo to sell at N4.67 per share.

The level of activity was mixed yesterday as the volume of trades went down by 42.34 percent to 250.9 million shares from 435.2 million stocks, while the value of transactions increased by 52.60 percent to N4.8 billion from N3.2 billion, with the number of deals also increasing by 8.85 percent to 4,561 deals from 4,190 deals.

Stanbic IBTC was the most active stock on Tuesday, selling 43.0 million units worth N1.8 billion, while Zenith Bank exchanged 34.3 million shares valued at N724.1 million.

UBA transacted 18.6 million stocks for N151.4 million, Fidelity Bank sold 17.6 million shares valued at N37.8 million, while GTBank traded 15.1 million equities for N467.9 million.

Looking at the key market indicators, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 174.36 points to 29,378.63 points from 29,552.99 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N90 billion to N15.133 trillion from N15.223 trillion.