By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The first trading day of the month of August 2018 started on bearish note with the political tension in the country gradually taking its toll on the stock market.
In the past few days, politicians in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had been defecting to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, announcing his defection last night and the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr Aminu Tambuwal, announcing his today.
With this cross-carpeting heating up the polity ahead of the 2019 general elections, investors are trading cautiously so as not to be caught unawares.
Business Post reports that on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, investors embarked on profit-taking, leaving the market pointing south at the close of business.
Our correspondent reports that the local stock market depreciated today by 1.09 percent with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns closing at -4.26 percent.
In addition, while the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased on Wednesday by 404.95 points to close at 36,612.83 points, the market capitalization reduced by N147 billion to settle at N13.263 trillion.
Like in the previous session, the market breadth finished negative with 22 stocks appreciating in value as against the 24 equities, which depreciated at the close of transactions on Wednesday.
Nestle Nigeria led the price losers’ table today after shedding N40 to finish the day at N1560 per share.
It was followed by International Breweries, which fell by N3.60k to close at N33.40k per share, and CAP, which declined by N3.50k to end at N31.50k per share.
Dangote Cement depreciated by N3 to close at N231 per share, while Nigerian Breweries lost N2 to settle at N103 per share.
On the other side, it was a rewarding session for Total Nigeria as the stock appreciated by N7 to settle at N190 per share.
Okomu Oil gained N6.30k to end at N81 per share, while Beta Glass increased by N1.05k to move up to N78 per share.
Lafarge went up by 50 kobo to close at N28 per share, while Ecobank garnered 25 kobo to finish at N20.80k per share.
Business Post reports further that at the close of trading today, the volume of shares bought and sold by investors decreased by 1.94 percent, while the value increased by 10.91 percent.
A total of 240.2 million exchanged hands today in 3,494 deals worth N5 billion compared with the 245 million equities worth N4.5 billion transacted yesterday at the stock market.
Like it happened on Tuesday, financial stocks dominated the activity chart on Wednesday with 191.9 million shares sold for N2.8 billion, while stocks in the Consumer Goods space followed with 22.7 million units transacted for N1.8 billion.
A further breakdown showed that Zenith Bank shares emerged the most traded at the market today with a total of 94.9 million units traded for N2.2 billion.
It was followed by United Bank for Africa (UBA), which exchanged 28.7 million units valued at N271.9 million, and Nigerian Breweries, which traded 15.1 million units worth N1.6 billion.
Fidelity Bank sold 12.6 million shares for N23.6 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 8.2 million equities worth N11.7 million.
A look at the performances of the sectors in the market showed that while the NSEFBT10 lost 2.31 percent, the NSEBNK10 went down by 0.66 percent and the NSEIND declined by 0.42 percent.
Adedapo Adesanya