By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In the month of September 2017, a total of N20 billion was lost by investors on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
According to the Head of Banking and Finance Department at the Nasarawa State University Keffi, Dr Uche Uwaleke, the stock market performance for September was mixed.
The university don said the market was characterised by bargain hunting and profit taking embarked upon by investors.
It was learnt from a monthly data obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from the NSE that the volume of shares traded at the market in the month under review depreciated by 43.72 percent, as investors transacted 4.21 billion shares worth N64.79 billion in 64,854 deals.
This was against a turnover of 7.48 billion shares valued at N198.45 billion achieved in 97,071 deals in August.
According to NAN, the Financial Services sector was the toast of investors accounting for 3.38 billion shares valued at N37.56 billion transacted in 37,103 deals.
Consumer Goods came second with a total of 223.42 million shares valued at N18.44 billion traded in 12,103 deals and Industrial Goods accounted for 213.14 million shares valued at N5.53 billion in 3,362 deals.
NAN further reports that Conglomerates came fourth with 176.85 million shares worth N483.23 million achieved in 2,850 deals.
Dangote Sugar was the toast of investors in the consumer goods with a total of 43.57 million shares worth N589.55 million in 1,458 deals and Dangote Flour sold 32.84 million shares valued at N207.66 million in 1,506 deals.
Under industrial goods, Meyer accounted for 139.73 million shares worth N97.81 million traded in 30 deals, while Lafarge Africa transacted 43.47 million shares valued at N2.21 billion in 1,771 deals.
Also, the All-Share Index during the period shed 64.64 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 35,439.98 against the opening figure of 35,504.62.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.237 trillion lost N20 billion to close at N12.216 trillion.
Commenting further, Dr Uwaleke told NAN that the month of October would likely be more bullish going by previous year’s trends.
He said that stock prices usually begin to go down late in November when investors sell to raise money for the Christmas season.
He added that the factors that would shape market performance in October include the 3rd quarter results of quoted companies expected to be released within the month.
