By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian stock market suffered its biggest loss in over two months on Friday, closing 2.17 lower when activities were brought to an end.
The last time the market posted a decline of more than 2 percent was on June 1, 2018, when a 3.38 percent loss was recorded on that trading day.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)’s All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 786.19 points to finish at 35,446.47 points, its lowest level since October 2017.
Also, the market capitalisation, which shows the total value of stocks listed on the exchange, reduced by N287 billion to settle at N12.941 trillion against the N13.228 trillion it finished on Thursday.
Business Post reports that the stock market did not record any gain this week as all the five trading days closed in red. This is as the political tension in the country continues to scare portfolio investors away from the market, who are taking profit as there are no positive news to cheer them up.
However, the volume of shares transacted by investors increased on Friday by 2.52 percent to 193 million from 188.3 million on Thursday, while the value of equities traded surged by 57.44 percent to N2 billion from N1.3 billion.
But the market breadth ended negative yesterday with a total of 25 stocks depreciating in value compared with the 14 equities that appreciated at the close of business.
Dangote Cement recorded the biggest loss at the market after going down by N14 to settle at N214 per share.
It was followed by Total Nigeria, which went down by N5 to close at N185 per share, and Lafarge, which lost N1.90k to finish at N28 per share.
GlaxoSmithKline reduced by N1.70k to end at N15.30k per share, while Ecobank decreased by N1.10k to close at N21.05k per share.
At the other end, Mobil Oil Nigeria recorded the biggest price appreciating after increased its share value by N6 to finish at N176 per share.
International Breweries garnered N1 to close at N32 per share, while Eterna grew by 45 kobo to settle at N6.55k per share.
FBN Holdings went up by 10 kobo to end at N9.60k per share, while Oando also gained 10 kobo to finish at N5.55k per share.
The banking sector led the activity chart yesterday with a total of 92.5 million shares worth N980 million traded by investors.
It was followed by the insurance sector, which sold 21.1 million equities valued at N6.8 million, and the diversified industries, which traded 19 million shares worth N27.2 million.
A further breakdown showed that United Bank for Africa (UBA) emerged the most traded stock, selling 52.1 million units worth N496.2 million.
Transcorp exchanged 18.5 million shares valued at N21.6 million, while Courtville transacted 14.7 million equities for N3.1 million.
Oando sold 12.2 million shares for N66.9 million, while Zenith Bank traded 11.8 million equities valued at N279.1 million.
With the Nigerian stock market, which gained 42 percent in 2017, already losing 7.31 percent this year, investors would hope things change for good next week.
