Selloffs Continue on NSE as Stocks Lose N145bn

By Dipo Olowookere

For the second straight session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained in the red territory as investors continue to take profit after gains of last week. At the market on Tuesday, transactions were down by 1.08 percent to expand the year-to-date loss to 12.98 percent.

This was after the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 298.04 points to finish at 27,352.24 points against 27,650.28 points of the previous session, while the market capitalization went down by N145.1 billion to finish at N13.315 trillion in contrast to N13.460 trillion in the previous session.

Though the market closed negative, the level of transactions improved significantly as the volume of traded shares rose by 40.59 percent to 154.0 million units from 109.6 million units, while the value increased by 218.09 percent to N2.8 billion from N888.2 million.

Transactions around Nigerian Breweries buoyed this yesterday as the company sold 37.3 million units of its shares worth N2.0 billion, while Transcorp traded 23.1 million units valued at N24.0 million.

FBN Holdings traded 13.3 million equities worth N72.8 million, UBA exchanged 9.9 million shares for N59.9 million, while UAC Property sold 7.5 million shares worth N8.8 million.

On the price movement chart, Mobil Oil Nigeria was the day’s heaviest price loser, depreciating by N4.50 to finish at N153.50 per share, while Stanbic IBTC followed with a decline of N3.55 to close at N39.30 per unit.

Cadbury Nigeria fell by N1.15 to settle at N10.45 per share, MTN Nigeria went down by N1 to close at N139 per unit, while Dangote Sugar depreciated by 70 kobo to end at N10.35 per unit.

At the other side, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart after appreciating by N5 to close at N1215.10 per share, while UAC Nigeria trailed with a gain of 50 kobo to finish at N7.65 per unit.

NPF Microfinance Bank rose by 9 kobo to close at N1.22 per share, ABC Transport improved its share price by 3 kobo to end at 34 kobo each, while Jaiz Bank grew by 2 kobo to settle at 45 kobo per unit.

At Tuesday’s trading session, the losses cut across the key sectors, with the banking index coming out as the most brutalized. The sector lost 2.39 percent, while insurance followed with 1.44 percent decline. The energy industry depreciated by 0.53 percent, the consumer goods sector fell by 0.36 percent, while the industrial goods sector went down by 0.17 percent.