NSE Year-to-Date Loss Drops to 14.44% after 0.95% Rise

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Life was returned to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as a result of the 0.95 percent rise recorded by the major market indices.

This reduced the year-to-date loss to 14.44 percent at the close of business from the 15.24 percent posted in the previous trading session.

The weak performance of the market since the second quarter of this year had made the year-to-date returns remain stable in the negative territory against the over 40 percent growth the market achieved last year.

At the end of activities yesterday, the Nigerian equities market performed better, leaving the All-Share Index (ASI) increasing by 308.7 points to settle at 32,722.18 points and the market capitalisation growing by N113 billion to finish at N11.946 trillion.

The day’s positive performance was majorly influenced by the gains recorded by Dangote Cement and other high-cap stocks.

Dangote Cement appreciated yesterday by N5 to close at N205 per share, while Nigerian Breweries rose by N2.70k to finish at N88.70k per share.

Another gainer on Tuesday was Unilever Nigeria, which added N2.30k to its share price to close at N43.50k per share, Guinness Nigeria appreciated by 50 kobo to end at N79 per share, while Zenith Bank increased by 35 kobo to settle at N22.70k per share.

However, the day was not pleasant for 23 stocks led by Seplat, which lost N10 of its share value to close at N620 per share.

Beta Glass suffered N7.80k loss to end at N70.20k per share, while Julius Berger depreciated by N2.35k to finish at N21.55k per share.

Flour Mills declined by 60 kobo to quote at N20.60k per share, while Lafarge went down by 50 kobo to settle at N21 per share.

Business Post reports that Sunu Assurances Nigeria emerged the most transacted equity at the market yesterday, accounting for 500.1 million units worth N100 million.

GTBank traded 41.8 million shares valued at N1.5 billion, while Fidelity Bank exchanged 20.3 million equities for N38.7 million.

Zenith Bank traded 17.3 million shares worth N389.1 million, while FCMB exchanged 11.9 million shares for N18.8 million.

At the close of transactions, the volume of shares traded by investors increased by 624.27 percent from 91.4 million to 662 million, while the value increased by 452.82 percent from N961 million to N5.3 billion.

These trades were dominated by financial stocks, which exchanged 628.8 million units for N2.3 billion and the consumer goods stocks, which accounted for 12.4 million units valued at N414 million.