By Dipo Olowookere
The local bourse retreated to the red zone for the second time this week on Thursday, going down slightly by 0.09 percent.
This occurred after the stock market recorded two successive upward trends on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It was observed that stocks in the Consumer Goods space performed woefully today with the sector going down by 0.23 percent.
However, other sectors finished in the green territory with the banking space growing marginally by 0.03 percent, Industrial sector by 0.05 percent, Insurance by 0.91 percent and the oil and gas by 0.47 percent.
The All-Shares Index (ASI) depreciated by 37.76 points on Thursday to close at 40,808.48 points, while the market capitalisation declined by N13.6 billion to settle at N14.741 trillion.
Business Post reports that the year-to-date returns contracted today to 6.72 percent as the market breadth closed negative with 21 price gainers and 25 price losers.
Dangote Cement topped the losers’ chart today after going down by N2 to close at N258 per share, and was followed by Unilever Nigeria, which went down by N1.90k to finish at N52 per share.
UAC of Nigeria fell by 60k to close at N16.90k per share, Forte Oil crashed by 55k to end at N36.95k per share, while Guinness Nigeria decreased by 50k to settle at N103 per share.
At the other end, Mobil Nigeria recorded the highest price appreciation, gaining N8 to close at N200 per share.
It was trailed by Stanbic IBTC, which grew by N1.65k to close at N50 per share, and Ecobank, which appreciated by 85k to end at N18.40k per share.
Nigerian Breweries increased by 70k to settle at N130 per share, while Oando garnered 60k to finish at N6.60k per share.
The market was a bit quiet on Thursday as the volume and value of shares traded depreciated at the close of business.
A total of 205.3 million shares exchanged hands today in 4,237 deals worth N3.1 billion against the 367.2 million equities transacted the previous day in 4,462 deals valued at N5.3 billion.
Friday, the last trading day of the week, is expected to be bullish as investors embark bargain-hunting, buying up shares, which have recorded losses in the past days.
Also, the hunger for Oando shares, which had its technical suspension fully lifted today, is expected to have a positive impact on the market.
