Stocks Shed N38bn Despite Positive Investor Sentiment

By Dipo Olowookere

Despite the market breadth, which measures investor sentiment, closing positive on Monday due to the 17 price gainers and 15 price losers recorded, the stock market closed negative.

The market depreciated during the opening trading session of the week by 0.21 per cent, reducing the year-to-date return to 30.63 per cent at the close of business.

Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI), which ended at the previous session at 35,137.99 points, decreased by 73.63 points yesterday to settle at 35,064.36 points.

Similarly, the market capitalisation, which closed last Friday at 18.365 points, went down on Monday by N38 billion to finish at N18.327 trillion.

From the analysis of Monday’s transactions, the return of the bears was on the invitation of banking equities, which had their index losing 0.84 per cent to profit-taking.

The consumer goods sector declined by 0.56 per cent, while the industrial goods counter fell by 0.07 per cent. However, the insurance index grew by 0.48 per cent, while the energy counter went up by 0.17 per cent.

Nigerian Breweries was the heaviest price loser yesterday as its share price fell by N1 to settle at N55 per unit and was trailed by Ecobank, which lost 50 kobo to trade at N5.40 per unit.

Transcorp Hotel depreciated by 40 kobo to N3.60 per share, Dangote Sugar lost 40 kobo to trade at N18.60 per unit, while Zenith Bank dropped 25 kobo to finish at N23.70 per share.

On the flip side, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills was the best-performing stock due to the 62 kobo added to its equity price to close at N6.88 per unit.

PZ Cussons gained 20 kobo to end at N5 per share, Livestock Feeds appreciated by 12 kobo to sell at N1.33 per unit, United Capital grew by 10 kobo to trade at N4.60 per share, while NAHCO chalked up 6 kobo to quote at N2.40 per unit.

More shares were traded during Monday’s session and boosted the trading volume by 10.74 per cent to 324.3 million units from 292.9 million units.

However, the value of the trades went down by 25.52 per cent to N3.2 billion from N4.3 billion, while the number of deals dropped 6.58 per cent to 4,103 from 4,392.

The most traded stock yesterday was UBA, which transacted 89.1 million units worth N730.8 million, while FBN Holdings followed with the sale of 49.6 million shares worth N354.8 million.

Access Bank transacted 27.6 million stocks for N236.0 million, Mutual Benefits exchanged 20.0 million equities valued at N4.4 million, while Ecobank sold 16.1 million shares for N86.9 million.