NSE: Seplat, 26 Others Direct Market to N41b Loss

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian stock market suffered its first loss in eight days after it closed in the red zone on Monday, recording a decline of N41 billion.

Business Post correspondent reports that a total of 27 equities depreciated in price against 16 stocks that went up and 14 equities that stayed flat.

Seplat, Forte Oil, MRS, Unilever and ETI emerged the top five losers at the close of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today.

While Seplat shed N20 to close at N390 per share, Forte Oil declined by N11.33k to finish at N104.91k per share.

Also, MRS lost N2.27k to end at N43.24k per share, Unilever fell by N1.97k to finish at N37.60k per share and ETI depreciated by 59k to close at N11.45k per share.

The market capitalisation slid to N9.147 trillion from N9.189 trillion, indicating a fall of N41 billion, while the all-share index also fell to 26,586.56 basis points from 26,707.10 basis points, showing a drop of 120.54 basis points or by 0.45 percent.

In the same vein, the volume of shares traded at the stock market on Monday declined by 611.4 million units with investors only able to exchange a total of 263 million shares valued at N1.7 billion in 2,789 deals compared with the 874 million units sold on Friday in 3,387 deals worth N4.4 billion.

A look at the activity chart shows NASCON emerging the most traded equities as measured by volume, accounting for N73.6 million sold valued at N531.1 million, while UBA followed with a total of 58.9 million traded at N263.5 million.

Also, Diamond Bank exchanged 32.1 million shares at N27.7 million, Zenith Bank transacted 18.8 million units worth N271 million and First Bank sold 11.8 million shares valued at N41.3 million.

In the price movement table, Guinness led with a gain of N7.40k to finish at N85 per share, Total appreciated by N2.87k to close at N280 per share and Julius Berger rose by N1.75k to end at N36.75k per share.

Similarly, Dangote Sugar went up by 25k to close at N6.35k per share and NASCON advanced by 22k to finish at N7.22k per share.