By Dipo Olowookere
The price of 23 stocks at the nation’s exchange depreciated on Tuesday on sustained cautious trading and profit-taking by market participants.
Situations in the country, especially the one caused by COVID-19, have made investors observe happenings from a safe position.
This has caused the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to continue to bleed and yesterday, the exchange recorded its fourth consecutive loss and eighth decline in nine trading sessions.
At the close of transactions on Tuesday, the market slipped marginally by 0.02 percent, leading to a 3.86 decline in the All-Share Index (ASI), which settled at 24,750.06 points as against the previous day’s 24,753.92 points.
Business Post reports that in the same vein, the market capitalisation decreased during the session by N2 billion to finish at N12.911 trillion in contrast to N12.913 trillion it ended on Monday.
MTN Nigeria, which led the nine-member gainers’ gang, was the highest price riser of the trading day, appreciating by N1.90 to sell at N118 per unit.
Flour Mills gained 30 kobo to trade at N20 per share, Zenith Bank improved by 10 kobo to settle at N16.25 per share, UAC Property expanded by 7 kobo to 98 kobo per unit, while Oando grew by 5 kobo to quote at N2.50 per share.
On the flip side, Dangote Sugar was the biggest price loser yesterday with a loss of N1.30 to close at N11.90 per share, while Nigerian Breweries followed with a decline of N1 to finish at N36 per unit.
PZ Cussons depreciated 40 kobo to quote at N4.50 per share, Ecobank lost 25 kobo to sell at N4.65 per unit, Lafarge Africa also dropped 25 kobo to trade at N11 per share, while Neimeth further depleted by 13 kobo to stay N1.26 per unit.
According to data from the exchange, the activity chart was mixed on Tuesday, with the number of deals decreasing by 1.48 percent to 3,783 deals from 3,840 deals.
However, the volume of shares traded by investors increased by 34.70 percent to 167.9 million from 124.7 million, while the value of the trades flew by 17.41 percent to N1.6 billion from N1.3 billion.
A look at how the five key sectors of the market faired yesterday showed that only the oil/gas space closed in green with an appreciation of 0.22 percent.
The consumer goods index lost 1.38 percent, the insurance counter fell by 1.27 percent, the banking index went down by 0.60 percent, while the industrial goods sector decreased by 0.18 percent.
