Seplat Drags Bears Back to Nigerian Stock Market

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a negative note by 0.14 percent on Wednesday following the return of bears to the market caused by losses recorded by Seplat and 16 other stocks.

Seplat, which topped the losers’ chart during the midweek trading session, went down by N2 to finish at N638 per share.

It was followed by Lafarge, which declined by N1.70k to close at N15.70k per share, and Presco, which lost N1.25k to end at N64.50k per share.

Dangote Sugar depreciated by 45 kobo to settle at N13 per share, while GTBank fell by 25 kobo to close at N37.05k per share.

At the other side of the table, Nigerian Breweries emerged as the highest price gainer, rising by 50 kobo to finish at N81.50k per share.

Fidson put up a good performance yesterday by growing by 40 kobo to close at N4.90k per share, while Red Star Express appreciated by 30 kobo to end at N4.50k per share.

UBA moved up by 20 kobo to close at N8 per share, while Zenith Bank increased by 15 kobo to settle at N24 per share.

Unlike the previous session, the volume and value of shares traded by investors improved by 200.79 percent and 236.45 percent respectively.

While the volume of equities transacted moved to 450.1 million from 149.7 million, the value rose to N9.4 billion from N2.8 billion.

However, the number deals recorded on Wednesday depreciated to 2,858 from 3,063 deals achieved on Tuesday.

On the activity chart, the Financial Services sector topped with 418 million shares exchanged for N8.7 billion, while the Consumer Goods sector followed with 10.3 million equities sold for N189 million.

A further breakdown showed Zenith Bank emerging as the most traded stock after exchanging 288.3 million units worth N6.9 billion.

FBN Holdings sold 41 million shares valued at N303.5 million, while GTBank traded 33.7 million equities for N1.3 billion.

FCMB transacted 11.2 million shares for N18.6 million, while Access Bank exchanged 9.4 million shares worth N74.1 million.

A look at the major market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 45.73 points to settle at 32,108.30 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N17 billion to close at N11.722 trillion.