By Dipo Olowookere
Investors trading in Nigerian stocks lost N149.7 billion on Monday as President Muhammadu Buhari declared his intention to seek re-election in the 2019 presidential election.
Mr Buhari had left many guessing if he would eventually throw his hat into the ring, but today, he put that into rest, announcing that he would want to remain in Aso Rock till 2023, when he would be expected to leave if he is finally elected by Nigerians in March 2019.
However, investors in the Nigerian capital market received this news with mixed feelings and by the time market activities were brought to an end on Monday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 1.01 percent, shrinking the year-to-date returns to 5.72 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 411.96 points to settle at 40,429.18 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N149.7 billion to close at N14.604 trillion.
Business Post reports that the market fell on Monday mainly as a result of price depreciation recorded by stocks in the banking, industrial goods and consumer goods sectors, which investors offloaded from their portfolios.
Today, Lafarge Africa Plc released its 2017 earnings, which fell short of what investors were expecting, especially with a N35 billion loss the cement maker declared.
In addition, investors were not happy with the cash dividend of N1.50k proposed by the board of Lafarge and they consequently punished the stock by offloading it.
At the end of the day, the market recorded 31 price losers and 17 price gainers, leaving the market breadth to close negative.
Unilever was the biggest price loser at the stock market today, going down by N4.80k to settle at N55 per share.
It was followed by Lafarge, which lost N3.20k of its share value to finish at N41 per share, and Dangote Cement, which fell by N2.90k to close at N252 per share.
Guinness Nigeria went down by N1 to end at N103 per share, while Dangote Flour decreased by 65k to settle at N13.15k per share.
On the flip side, GlaxoSmithKline emerged the biggest price gainer, going up by N1 to close at N30 per share.
It was trailed by CCNN, which appreciated by 20k to settle at N18 per share, and Champion Breweries, which also improved by 20k to close at N2.48k per share.
Axa Mansard grew by 12k to end at N2.52k per share, while Fidson also increased by 12k to settle at N5.80k per share.
Business Post’s Dipo Olowookere reports that the volume transactions recorded today decreased by 42.82 percent, while the value went down by 15.37 percent.
A total of 287 million shares were sold at the market on Monday in 4,285 deals worth N4.9 billion in contrast to the 502 million equities exchanged last Friday in 6,108 deals valued at N5.9 billion.
Trading was dominated by banking stocks with FBN Holdings emerging investors’ toast after selling 30 million units worth N359 million.
It was followed by Skye Bank, which traded 23 million shares valued at N15 million, and FCMB, which exchanged 23 million shares for N53.9 million.
Zenith Bank traded 22.5 million units valued at N606.9 million, while Nigerian Breweries sold 20.6 million worth N2.6 billion.
