Sell Pressure Tightens Bears’ Grip on Local Bourse by 0.22%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained under the strict control of the bears on Monday following a further decline of 0.22 per cent in the key performance indicators.

There was a selling pressure on stocks in the banking and consumer goods sectors yesterday and this weakened the All-Share Index (ASI) by 86.64 points to 38,561.84 points from 38,648.48 points.

Also, the losses recorded by 18 equities on the exchange, more than the 17 price gainers, trimmed the market capitalisation by N45 billion to N20.176 trillion from N20.221 trillion.

Business Post reports that the 1.98 per cent and 0.66 per cent gains recorded by insurance and energy sectors were not enough to water the 1.52 per cent and 1.01 per cent decline printed by the consumer goods and banking indices. The industrial goods space closed flat yesterday.

During the trading session, investors traded 184.5 million shares worth N2.5 billion in 3,527 deals as against the 294.0 million stocks worth N3.8 billion transacted in 3,760 deals last Friday, indicating a 37.23 per cent decline in the trading volume, 33.22 per cent drop in the trading value and 6.20 per cent fall in the number of deals.

The most active stock at the market on Monday was FBN Holdings as it traded 31.1 million shares valued at N226.0 million, while the next, Notore, sold 22.0 million equities worth N1.4 billion.

Fidelity Bank exchanged 15.3 million shares for N35.3 million, Sovereign Trust Insurance transacted 10.8 million shares valued at N2.4 million, while Transcorp traded 8.7 million shares for N7.1 million.

On the price movement chart, Regency Alliance Insurance was the heaviest loser as its share price went down by 9.09 per cent to finish at 30 kobo.

Livestock Feeds lost 8.50 per cent to close at N1.83, Nigerian Breweries depreciated by 5.34 per cent to N47, Jaiz Bank fell by 4.62 per cent to 62 kobo, while Lasaco Assurance dropped 4.62 per cent to settle at N1.24.

On top of the gainers’ table on Monday was Coronation Insurance (Wapic) after its equity price moved up by 10.00 per cent to trade at 55 kobo.

Northern Nigerian Flour Mills gained 9.73 per cent to sell at N6.20, Smart Products Nigeria grew by 8.33 per cent to 26 kobo, NEM Insurance gained 7.88 per cent to quote at N2.19, while Berger Paints appreciated by 7.44 per cent to N6.50.