Nigerian Stocks Struggle for Direction, Drop 0.96%

By Dipo Olowookere

Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained bearish on Thursday following persisted selling pressure.

Also, the level of activities remain weak yesterday as some investors remain on the sidelines, waiting to get things running fully from next week.

At the close of the trading session, the stock market was down by 0.96 percent with a year-to-date loss of 2.10 percent.

In addition, the volume of trades went down by 21.09 percent, while the value of transactions reduced by 27.79 percent.

Business Post reports that a total of 169.2 million shares worth N1.1 billion were exchanged by investors yesterday compared with the 214.4 million worth N1.6 billion traded the previous day.

More shares of Diamond Bank were sold on Thursday at the market, recording a turnover of 52 million units worth N107.2 million.

Transcorp exchanged 12.8 million equities valued at N15.6 million, while Access Bank exchanged 11.3 million units of its stock to end at N71.4 million.

Furthermore, FCMB sold 9.8 million equities worth N16.5 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 7.4 million shares valued at N168.7 million.

On the price movement chart, Forte Oil topped the gainers’ table with a rise of N2.70k to settle for the day at N30.70k per share.

It was followed by Julius Berger, which went up by N1.15k to finish at N23.25k per share, and Union Bank, which appreciated by 45 kobo to close at N6.05k per share.

Nigerian Breweries grew by 40 kobo to settle at N78.70k per share, while Vitafoam appreciated by 17 kobo to quote at N4.99k per share.

At the other side, Stanbic IBTC emerged as the highest price loser after shedding N1.95k to finish at N46 per share.

GTBank followed with a N1.55k loss to finish at N32.95k per share, while GlaxoSmithKline went down by N1.45k to end at N13.05k per share.

CCNN depreciated by 95 kobo to settle at N18.45k per share, while CAP dropped 85 kobo to close at N34 per share. By the time the stock exchange closed on Thursday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 298.74 points to settle at 30,771.32 points, while the market capitalisation dropped N111 billion to finish at N11.475 trillion.