By Dipo Olowookere
The local stock market printed its eighth consecutive loss on Wednesday despite the gradual rise in investor confidence especially in financial stocks during the session as reflected in the activity level.
The volume of transactions increased by 37.41 percent to 350.2 million units from 254.9 million units, while the value of trades improved by 40.73 percent to N4.3 billion from N3.0 billion.
Business Post observed that traders picked interest in banking equities currently trading at low prices, with more on Zenith Bank, which transacted 98.1 million units worth N1.9 billion.
FBN Holdings traded 47.1 million shares valued at N277.8 million, FCMB exchanged 41.2 million equities for N79.1 million, UBA traded 21.7 million shares for N162.2 million, while Ecobank transacted 19.9 million stocks valued at N141.1 million.
At the midweek session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) posted a 1.19 percent loss, cutting down the year-to-date return to 4.66 percent when market activities were brought to an end.
The further bleeding of the market was caused by persistent selloffs in bellwether stocks in the energy sector like Mobil, consumer goods equities like Nigerian Breweries and shares in the industrial goods like Dangote Cement.
Business Post reports that the poor performances of these sectors overran the gains printed by stocks in the banking sector and insurance industry, which appreciated by 1.46 percent and 0.63 percent respectively.
The oil and gas index recorded the biggest fall (2.19 percent) and was followed by the industrial goods index (1.63 percent), while the consumer goods index declined by 1.37 percent.
The market breadth ended negative at the midweek trading session with 23 price losers and 13 price risers.
Mobil topped the losers’ chart after going down by N14.70 to sell at N133.20 per share and was followed by Dangote Cement, which lost N9.90 to trade at N170 per unit.
Nigerian Breweries depreciated by N3.50 to quote at N51.50 per share, Conoil went down by N2 to finish at N18 per unit, while NASCON declined by N1.50 to settle at N13.50 per share.
On the flip side, CAP took charge with a price appreciation of N2 to trade at N24.60 per share, with Union Bank following after gaining 65 kobo to sell at N7.25 per unit.
Dangote Sugar rose by 50 kobo to close at N12.95 per share, Julius Berger appreciated by 45 kobo to finish at N21.95 per unit, while Access Bank garnered 35 kobo to trade at N9.35 per share.
Yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 338.51 points to 28,093.76 points from 28,432.27 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N174 billion to N14.471 trillion from N14.645 trillion.
