By Modupe Gbadeyanka
For the first time this year, the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns slipped into the negative territory as pressure continue to mount on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The stock market went down at the close of Thursday’s trading by 1.30 percent with the YtD gain finishing at -0.36 percent.
This is as all sectors suffered declines at the market today except the insurance sector, NSEINS10, which went up by 0.23 percent.
The NSEFBT10 lost 2.59 percent, NSEIND depreciated by 2.13 percent, NSEBNK10 dropped 1.10 percent and NSEOILG5 fell by 0.34 percent.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 501.87 points today to settle at 38,104.54 points, while the equity capitalisation decreased by N181.8 billion to finish at N13.803 trillion.
Like in the previous sessions, the market breadth ended negative today with 21 price risers and 28 price fallers.
The market saw Nestle Nigeria emerging as the worst performer on Thursday after going down by N67.50k to close at N1472.50k per share.
It was followed by Okomu Oil, which declined by N5 to close at N80 per share, and International Breweries, which fell by N4.75k to settle at N44.50k per share.
Forte Oil lost N3.70k to close at N37 per share, while Dangote Cement depreciated by N2.50k to finish at N240 per share.
However, it was a very good trading day for Seplat as its shares went up by N8.50k to end the day at N743.20k per share.
It was trailed by Unilever Nigeria, which increased by N2.45k to close at N51.45k per share, and CCNN, which also rose by N2.45k per share to finish at N26.65k per share.
FBN Holdings garnered 55k at the market today to close at N10.15k per share, while Dangote Sugar chalked up 45k to end at N17.45k per share.
Business Post reports that despite the poor performance by the equity market on Thursday, activities on the floor of the NSE, like yesterday, boomed.
At the close of transactions, the volume of stocks exchanged by investors increased by 372.86 percent, while the value appreciated by 1402.36 percent.
A total of 1.6 billion shares were traded by investors today in 5,166 deals worth N71.2 billion in contrast to the 342 million equities sold in 5,057 deals valued at N4.7 billion.
It was observed that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 1.6 billion shares exchanged for N69.1 billion followed by the Oil and Gas sector, which sold 21.8 million shares valued at N193 million.
A further breakdown of the trades showed that Stanbic IBTC led the activity chart with 1.2 billion units worth N61.6 billion.
It was followed by Zenith Bank, which sold 127.2 million equities valued at N3.3 billion, and GTBank, which exchanged 74 million shares for N3 billion.
UBA transacted 65.6 million shares valued at N700.8 million, while Sterling Bank sold 29.8 million equities worth N36.3 million.
