Tier-1 Banking Stocks, Others Deplete Market by N46bn

By Dipo Olowookere

Stocks in the banking sector, especially the tier-1, were mainly responsible for the 0.25 per cent decline suffered by the equity market on Thursday.

The profit-taking in GTBank, UBA and Zenith Bank weighed on the market and weakened the banking index by 2.07 per cent. The insurance sector lost 0.82 per cent, the consumer goods counter fell by 0.20 per cent, while the energy index gained 0.35 per cent, with the industrial goods sector closing flat.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 87.88 points to 34,968.94 points from 35,056.82 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N46 billion to N18.277 trillion from N18.323 trillion.

The negative sentiment persisted yesterday and this left the market breadth negative with 13 price gainers and 25 price losers led by GTBank, which fell by 50 kobo to N33.60 per unit.

Flour Mills went down by 50 kobo to sell for N26.50 per share, Cadbury Nigeria declined by 50 kobo to N8.70 per unit, UBA fell by 45 kobo to close at N8.20 per share, while Zenith Bank dropped 45 kobo to trade at N23.55 per share.

On the gainers’ table, MTN Nigeria dominated with a price appreciation of N1.20 to close at N156.20 per share, Ardova gained N1 to quote at N14 per unit, Red Star Express rose by 13 kobo to sell for N3.38 per share, Cutix appreciated by 10 kobo to N1.90 per unit, while University Press gained 6 kobo to quote at N1.47 per share.

Business Post reports that the activity level was mixed yesterday as a result of the 21.57 per cent decline in the trading volume, the 33.82 per cent rise in the trading value and the 6.09 per cent growth in the number of deals.

At the close of transactions, investors traded 289.4 million stocks worth N7.4 billion in 4,878 deals in contrast to the 369.0 million equities worth N5.5 billion transacted in 4,598 deals on Wednesday.

During the session, UBA was the most traded stock, selling 34.5 million units worth N283.4 million, while Zenith Bank sold 31.2 million units valued at N743.6 million.

MTN Nigeria traded 27.4 million shares for N4.4 billion, Access Bank exchanged 23.0 million equities worth N196.0 million, while Mutual Benefits transacted 22.5 million stocks for N5.1 million.