By Dipo Olowookere
Activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a negative note on Wednesday as investors closely watch happenings in the political settings in the country.
Yesterday, there were reports that a lawmaker suspended for supporting President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Ovie Omo-Agege, stormed the Senate with some thugs to steal the symbol of authority of the upper parliament, the mace.
Hours later, the Senator was arrested by security officials in connection with the unfortunate incident.
Also yesterday, it was reported that some Ministers were not at the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who stood in for his boss presently away in London for a meeting of leaders of Commonwealth nations.
With these political tensions ahead of the 2019 general elections, the local bourse reacted negatively, recording a marginal decline of 0.04 percent. This came a day after the equity market posted a gain of 0.63 percent.
Business Post reports that the market capitalisation depreciated yesterday by N5.9 billion to close at N14.728 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 16.42 points to finish at 40,772.26 points.
Our correspondent further reports that there were sell-offs recorded in the Industrial goods, Consumer goods as well as the Oil & Gas sectors.
At the close of business, it was Seplat that topped the price losers’ chart after losing N23.90k to finish at N702 per share.
It was followed by International Breweries, which depreciated by N1.5k to close at N48.95k per share, and Lafarge, which fell by 95k to end at N45.65k per share.
Nigerian Breweries depreciated by 90k to finish at N126 per share, while Union Bank went down by 30k to close at N6 per share.
On the flip side, Julius Berger gave its shareholders something to be happy about at the market yesterday after growing by N1.5k to settle at N27 per share.
Oando gained 80k to close at N9.5k per share, while Ecobank garnered 50k to wrap the day at N19.50k per share.
Northern Nigeria Flour Mills appreciated by 30k on Wednesday to end at N6.85k per share, while Fidson added 26k to its share value to settle at N5.77k per share.
In all, a total of 24 counters recorded various price appreciations yesterday at the stock market, while 18 equities depreciated in value.
Business Post reports also that the volume and value of transactions recorded yesterday decreased by 85.64 percent and 60.43 percent.
Investors traded a total of 230.2 million shares worth N4.3 billion in 4,090 deals against the 1.6 billion equities sold in the previous session in 4,729 deals valued at N10.9 billion.
It was observed that there were huge activities in the GTBank shares with a total of 67.4 million units sold for N3 billion.
Fidelity Bank traded 14.9 million shares worth N38.4 million, while First Bank exchanged 14.7 million equities valued at N182.7 million.
Japaul Oil transacted 12.9 million shares for N7 million, while FCMB traded 10.3 million equities at N25.8 million.
