By Dipo Olowookere
Stock market indices were weakened on Wednesday as President Muhammadu Buhari presented his government’s budget estimate for the 2019 fiscal year.
In his budget christened Budget of Continuity, Mr Buhari, during the presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly, said a total of N8.83 trillion is expected to be used in the coming year.
In reaction, the stock market suffered a decline as a result of the losses posted by some large cap equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The poor performances of Seplat, Dangote Cement and some other stocks dragged the market down by 0.35 percent, leaving the year-to-date loss at 19.71 percent.
While Seplat depreciated by N38.80 percent to settle at N555.20k per share, Total Nigeria went down by N3 to finish at N195 per share.
Also, Dangote Cement crashed by N3 to end at N186 per share, Mobil Oil Nigeria had its share value reduced by N2 to quote at N168 per share, while Julius Berger depreciated by 90 kobo to close at N20.10k per share.
On the flip side, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart with N20 added to its share price to close at N1470 per share.
Forte Oil grew by N2.35k to end at N26.20k per share, while Nigerian Breweries appreciated by N1.80k to quote at N78.50k per share.
Furthermore, Stanbic IBTC went up by 45 kobo to close at N46 per share, while Flour Mills rose by 35 kobo to settle at N21.85k per share.
During trading yesterday, the volume of shares transacted reduced by 36.43 percent to 201 million units from 316.2 million units, while the value went down by 19.49 percent to N4.1 billion from N5.1 billion.
Zenith Bank dominated the activity chart on Wednesday with a turnover of 51.9 million shares transacted for N1.2 billion.
It was followed by Lafarge Africa, which sold 38.7 million units worth N457.3 million, and FBN Holdings, which transacted 15.9 million shares valued at N120.4 million.
GTBank exchanged 12.3 million equities for N427.6 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 9.6 million shares worth N18.4 million.
A look at the major market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 109.21 points to settle at 30,704.98 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N39 billion to finish at N11.216 trillion.
