By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Activities of profit takers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday further left local equities bleeding by 1.22 percent. Some investors were ruthless during the trading session, which was the last for the month of April 2019.
Even news of the eventual passage of the 2019 budget by the Senate yesterday could not pacify investors as they were bent on taking profit before re-investing on fundamentally sound stocks presently selling at low prices.
At the close of transactions, the market capitalisation of NSE decreased by N136 billion to finish at N10.959 trillion against N11.095 trillion of the previous day.
Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI), the barometer of the market’s performance, depreciated by 361.32 points to settle at 29,159.74 points.
Despite the market closing south on Tuesday, the level of activities significantly improved with the volume and value of equities traded rising by 87.44 percent and 278.78 percent respectively.
A total of 543.9 million shares valued at N8.2 billion were traded on Tuesday in contrast to the 290.2 million units worth N2.2 billion transacted on Monday.
A closer look at the activity chart indicated that the growth in yesterday’s transactions was buoyed by the huge volume of sales in the shares of CCNN, accounting for 132.3 million units worth N1.9 billion.
FBN Holdings traded 68.8 million shares valued at N497.3 million, while Unilever Nigeria exchanged 50.5 million equities for N1.6 billion.
GTBank sold 41.4 million shares for N1.4 billion, while Dangote Flour exchanged 37.9 million shares for N712.1 million.
Business Post reports that the price movement chart showed that Nestle Nigeria led the losers’ log, depreciating by N30 to close at N1520 per share.
Dangote Cement lost N6 yesterday to settle at N180 per unit, while Stanbic IBTC declined by N1.70k to finish at N43.40k per share.
CCNN lost N1.35k of its share value to end at N14 per unit, while NASCON dropped 90 kobo to close at N18.10k per share.
On the flip side, Seplat emerged as the day’s highest price gainer, appreciating by N7 to settle at N575 per share.
Forte Oil gained N3.20k to finish at N35.30k per share, while Julius Berger appreciated by N2.25k to end at N26.95k per share.
Mobil Oil Nigeria rose by N2 to settle at N177 per share, while Dangote Flour sustained its recent price appreciation by an additional N1.70k to close at N18.80k per share.
Business Post reports that the market closed today to observe the Workers’ Day holiday. Normal activities will resume tomorrow.
