By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions at the local stock market remained bearish on Tuesday in the absence of any positive news to stir buying pressure.
News of the reduction in the benchmark interest rate by 0.50 percent to 13.50 percent by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) today came when the market had already closed for the day’s business.
Investors are optimistic that this development would trigger a buying pressure tomorrow, but at the close of transactions today, the market slightly went down by 0.01 percent, leaving the All-Share Index (ASI) down by 3.46 points to close at 31,038.86 points.
However, the market capitalisation increased at the close of trading by N95 billion to N11.671 trillion from N11.576 trillion.
It was observed that the losses printed by stocks in the banking and consumer goods sectors dragged the market down on Tuesday.
While the banking index depreciated by 0.38 percent, the consumer goods index shed 0.54 percent.
Business Post reports that the market breadth ended negative as a result of the 20 price losers and 18 price gainers registered today.
Presco closed as the day’s biggest price loser after recording a N3.50k loss to settle at N64.50k per share.
It was followed by Nigerian Breweries, which lost N2.50k to close at N67 per unit, and Ecobank, which dropped 45 kobo to end at N13.05k per share.
PZ Cussons fell by 30 kobo to close at N10.20k per share, while Union Bank lost 15 kobo to finish at N6.90k per unit.
At the other side, Mobil Oil Nigeria sat comfortably on the gainers’ chart with N3 added to its share price to close at N170 per unit.
Dangote Cement rose by N1.50k to end at N190 per share, while Cadbury Nigeria appreciated by 95 kobo to settle at N10.85k per share.
Unilever Nigeria increased its share value by 50 kobo today to close at N39 per unit, while Dangote Flour garnered 35 kobo to close at N11.45k per share.
An analysis of the activity chart showed that the volume and value of shares transacted on Tuesday went down by 14.83 percent and 55.16 percent respectively.
A total of 143.7 million shares worth N1.7 billion were traded in 3,457 deals today compared with the 168.7 million equities worth N3.8 billion transacted in 3,048 deals the previous session.
Shares of FBN Holdings caught the attention of investors at the market today, with a total of 29.7 million units sold for N243.3 million.
Access Bank traded 16.3 million units worth N106.1 million, while UBA exchanged 11.8 million units valued at N91 million.
Furthermore, Transcorp traded 9.1 million shares for N11.3 million, while Vitafoam sold 8.1 million units worth N32 million.
Adedapo Adesanya