By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) started the week bearish on Monday as the selling off of equities by investors continued.
Despite the gains recorded by some stocks trading on the exchange yesterday, including Dangote Cement, one of the market movers, selloffs by some large-cap counters, especially, Guinness, Nigerian Breweries and Flour Mills, dragged the market down slightly by 0.03 percent, leaving the year-to-date returns at -8.90% percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 10.95 percent to settle at 34,837.50 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N4 billion to finish at N12.718 trillion.
Business Post reports that the market breadth ended negative yesterday with 18 price risers and 20 price fallers.
Guinness Nigeria led the losers’ chart after a loss of N5 to close at N90 per share with Nigerian Breweries following after going down by N2.90k to end at N95 per share.
Flour Mills depreciated by N2.35k to settle at N21.95k per share, Dangote Sugar crashed by 65 kobo to close at N15.10k per share, while Oando went down by 30 kobo to end at N5 per share.
At the other end, Dangote Cement emerged the highest price gainer after improving by N2 to close at N230 per share.
It was followed by Okomu Oil, which gained 55 kobo to end at N77.50k per share, and GTBank, which grew by 50 kobo to settle at N36.50k per share.
Zenith Bank went up by 35 kobo to finish at N21.35k per share, while Eterna appreciated by 20 kobo to close at N6.90k per share.
It was observed that the market was dull on Monday with the volume and value of equities traded by investors decreasing by 65.83 percent and 68.02 percent respectively.
A total of 131.5 million shares exchanged hands yesterday in 3,080 deals worth N3.1 billion in contrast to the 384.9 million units sold last session valued at N9.8 billion.
These trades were dominated by the shares of Nigerian Breweries, accounting for 19.1 million units worth N1.8 billion.
Stanbic IBTC transacted 11.8 million shares valued at N556.6 million, while AIICO sold 11.2 million equities worth N10.1 million.
UBA exchanged 10.8 million shares for N86.2 million, while NEM Insurance traded 7.3 million equities worth N24.6 million.
