Stock Market Sustains Bearish Push as ASI YTD Hits -5.20%

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Equities market in Nigeria continued the bearish momentum it opened with yesterday with the major market indices sliding south again.

The All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.58 percent or 148.31 points at the close of trading on Tuesday to finish at 25,478.06 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N51 billion to close at N8.816 trillion.

At the close of market activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today, the year-to-date return dropped to -5.20 percent.

Just like the previous day, the market breadth closed negative with 26 losers and 12 gainers.

Mobil suffered the highest fall, N34, to close at N326 per share, with Forte Oil trailing after going down by N1.9k to close at N44.91k per share.

Dangote Cement declined by 60k a day after the NSE honoured its owner, Mr Aliko Dangote, to finish at N164 per share.

Also, Flour Mill depreciated by 49k to close at N17.50k per share and Nigerian Breweries dropped 45k to end at N122 per share.

On the other side, Seplat gained N3 to close at N398 per share, while International Breweries advanced by 82k to end at N17.50k per share.

CAP Plc grew by 36k to finish at N33 per share, UACN progressed by 16k to close at N14.96k per share and Ecobank went up by 9k to wrap the day at N8.30k per share.

Business Post correspondent reports that investors traded a total of 402.7 million shares at the market today in 3,459 deals valued at N1.92 billion.