Nigerian Stocks Suffer Further 0.18% Loss as Bearish Mood Persists

By Dipo Olowookere

Sentiment on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained negative on Wednesday with the major market metrics settling in the red zone.

Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 75.68 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 41,080.12 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N27.4 billion to close at N14.881 trillion.

On Monday, the equity market went down by 0.11 percent and on Tuesday, the market slightly declined by 0.04 percent.

At the close of transactions at the mid-week session, the market breadth ended negative thanks to the 27 counters that decline and 22 equities which appreciated in price.

Unilever Nigeria topped the losers’ chart with N2.60k of its share value lost to settle for the day at N49.90k per share.

Nigerian Breweries followed with N1.80k lost to close at N125.20k per share, and CAP Plc, which went down by N1.65k to finish at N37.10k per share.

GTBank declined today by 65k to settle at N45 per share, while UAC of Nigeria depreciated by 60k to end at N17.40k per share.

On the flip side, Nestle Nigeria emerged the biggest price gainer on Wednesday after adding N2.50k to its share value to close at N1570 per share.

It was followed by CCNN, which increased by N1.15k to finish at N24.60k per share, and Dangote Cement, which rose by N1 to end at N248 per share.

Guinness Nigeria went up by 50k to close at N104 per share, while NASCON also appreciated by the same amount to finish at N21 per share.

Business Post reports that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart today with 303.9 million shares exchanged for N8.6 billion, while the Conglomerates sector followed with 10.5 million equities traded for N27 million.

At the end of trading activities, a total of 341.1 million shares exchanged hands in 3,790 deals worth N9.3 billion compared with the 563.6 million equities sold yesterday in 4,217 deals valued at N5.8 billion.

This analysis showed that the volume shares traded by investors today decreased by 39.49 percent when compared with the previous session, with the value increasing by 61.65 percent.