Economy

Transcorp, UBA, Lafarge, 6 Other Stocks Trade at 52-Week Lows

Published

6 years ago

24/03/2020

By Dipo Olowookere

Activities at the nation’s stock market closed bearish on Monday, causing some equities to further bleed at the close of transactions on the first trading day of the new week.

Business Post reports that a total of nine stocks traded at 52-week lows during the session as investors continued to selloffs due to global uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nigeria recorded its first death from the COVID-19 yesterday and this further made some traders to press the panic button, offloading their portfolios in order not to be caught in a tight corner.

This resulted in the 2.24 percent lost by the market, which led to the reduction of the All-Share Index (ASI) by 497.45 points to 21,700.98 points from 22,198.43 points and the trimming of the market capitalisation by N259 trillion to N11.309 trillion from N11.568 trillion.

The market breadth closed negative at the session, with 25 price losers as against 9 price gainers. Out of the price decliners, nine, as earlier stated, had their share prices trading at the lowest levels in almost a year.

These stocks were Nigerian Breweries at N27, Stanbic IBTC at N23.85, GTBank at N16.75, Zenith Bank at N10.70, Unilever Nigeria at N10.50, Lafarge Africa at N9.10, International Breweries at N5, UBA at N4.50 and Transcorp at 56 kobo.

On the price movement chart, Nigerian Breweries was the highest price loser. The company’s stock value decreased by N3 to N27 per unit, while Stanbic IBTC fell by N2.65 to N23.85 each.

GTBank lost N1.85 at the market yesterday to sell at N16.75 per share, Zenith Bank depreciated by N1.15 to settle at N10.70 per unit, while Unilever Nigeria also went down by N1.15 to N10.50 per share.

On the flip side, CAP was the best performing equity at the market on Monday, gaining N1.50 to trade at N21 per unit, while the shares of Flour Mills also increased by N1.50 to N20.80 per unit.

Custodian Investment improved by 45 kobo to sell at N5.65 per share, May & Baker grew by 16 kobo to N1.95 per unit, while Vitafoam appreciated by 11 kobo to N4.25 per share.

The activity chart showed an improvement, with 22.37 percent rise in trading volume, 12.89 percent growth in the trading value and 26.00 percent increase in the number of stocks traded by investors at the session.

According to data from the exchange, 464.4 million shares worth N3.9 billion exchanged hands on Monday in 5,883 deals compared with the 379.5 million equities valued at N3.4 billion transacted in 4,669 deals last Friday.

The low prices of stocks at the market gave room for investors to mop up some value stocks during the trading day. Zenith Bank closed for the day as the most active equity, trading 120.5 million units worth N1.3 billion.

GTBank transacted 63.3 million shares valued at N1.1 billion, FBN Holdings traded 46.7 million stocks for N176.1 million, Access Bank sold 31.0 million shares worth N173.2 million, while UBA exchanged 29.2 million stocks for N136.1 million.

Business Post reports that all the five key sectors of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) printed losses on Monday, with the banking counter emerging the worst hit after going down by 9.00 percent.

The consumer goods index lost 3.61 percent, the insurance sector depreciated by 1.47 percent, the oil/gas counter fell by 0.83 percent, while the industrial goods index decreased by 0.79 percent.

Economy

Nigerian Stocks Close 1.13% Higher to Remain in Bulls’ Territory

Published

1 day ago

20/12/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The local stock market firmed up by 1.13 per cent on Friday as appetite for Nigerian stocks remained strong.

Investors reacted well to the 2026 budget presentation of President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly yesterday, especially because of the more realistic crude oil benchmark of $64 per barrel compared with the ambitious $75 per barrel for 2025. This year, prices have been between $60 and $65 per barrel.

Business Post observed profit-taking in the commodity and energy sectors as they respectively shed 0.14 per cent and 0.03 per cent.

But, bargain-hunting in the others sustained the positive run, with the consumer goods index up by 3.82 per cent.

Further, the industrial goods space appreciated by 1.46 per cent, the banking counter improved by 0.08 per cent, and the insurance industry gained 0.04 per cent.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 1,694.33 points to 152,057.38 points from 150,363.05 points and the market capitalisation chalked up N1.080 trillion to finish at N96.937 trillion compared with Thursday’s closing value of N95.857 trillion.

A total of 34 shares ended on the advancers’ chart, while 24 were on the laggards’ log, representing a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment.

Austin Laz gained 10.00 per cent to close at N2.42, Union Dicon also jumped 10.00 per cent to N6.60, Tantalizers increased by 9.80 per cent to N2.69, Aluminium Extrusion improved by 9.78 per cent to N12.35, and Champion Breweries grew by 9.71 per cent to N16.95.

Conversely, Sovereign Trust Insurance dipped by 7.42 per cent to N3.87, Royal Exchange lost 6.84 per cent to trade at N1.77, Omatek slipped by 6.84 per cent to N1.09, Eunisell depreciated by 5.88 per cent to N80.00, and Eterna dropped 5.63 per cent to close at N28.50.

Yesterday, traders transacted 1.5 billion units worth N21.8 billion in 25,667 deals compared with the 839.8 million units sold for N32.8 billion in 23,211 deals in the preceding session, showing a surge in the trading volume by 76.61 per cent, an uptick in the number of deals by 10.58 per cent, and a shrink in the trading value by 33.54 per cent.

Economy

FrieslandCampina, Two Others Erase N26bn from NASD OTC Bourse

Published

1 day ago

20/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Three stocks stretched the bearish run of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 1.21 per cent on Friday, December 19, with the market capitalisation giving up N26.01 billion to close at N2.121 billion compared with the N2.147 trillion it ended a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropping 43.47 points to 3,546.41 points from 3,589.88 points.

The trio of FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, and NASD Plc overpowered the gains printed by four other securities.

FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc lost N6.00 to sell at N54.00 per unit versus N60.00 per unit, NASD Plc shrank by N3.50 to N58.50 per share from N55.00 per share, and CSCS Plc depleted by N2.91 to N33.87 per unit from N36.78 per unit.

On the flip side, Air Liquide Plc gained N1.01 to close at N13.00 per share versus N11.99 per share, Golden Capital Plc appreciated by 70 Kobo to N7.68 per unit from N6.98 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc added 39 Kobo to sell at N5.50 per share versus N5.11 per share, and IPWA Plc rose by 8 Kobo to 85 Kobo per unit from 77 Kobo per unit.

During the trading day, market participants traded 1.9 million securities versus the previous day’s 30.5 million securities showing a decline of 49.3 per cent. The value of trades went down by 64.3 per cent to N80.3 million from N225.1 million, but the number of deals jumped by 32.1 per cent to 37 deals from 28 deals.

Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc finished the session as the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units transacted for N9.5 billion, and MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units traded for N4.9 billion.

The most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis was still InfraCredit Plc with 5.8 billion units worth N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.7 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units traded for N524.9 million.

Economy

Naira Crashes to N1,464/$1 at Official Market, N1,485/$1 at Black Market

Published

1 day ago

20/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was not a good day for the Nigerian Naira at the two major foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday as it suffered a heavy loss against the United States Dollar at the close of transactions.

In the black market segment, the Naira weakened against its American counterpart yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,485/$1, in contrast to the N1,475/$1 it was traded a day earlier, and at the GTBank forex counter, it depreciated by N2 to settle at N1,467/$1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,465/$1.

In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) window, which is also the official market, the nation’s legal tender crashed against the greenback by N6.65 or 0.46 per cent to close at N1,464.49/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,457.84/$1.

In the same vein, the local currency tumbled against the Euro in the spot market by N2.25 to sell for N1,714.63/€1 compared with the previous day’s N1,712.38/€1, but appreciated against the Pound Sterling by 73 Kobo to finish at N1,957.30/£1 compared with the N1,958.03/£1 it was traded in the preceding session.

The market continues to face seasonal pressure even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is still conducting FX intervention sales, which have significantly reduced but not remove pressure from the Naira. Also, there seems to be reduced supply from exporters, foreign portfolio investors and non-bank corporate inflows.

President Bola Tinubu on Friday presented the government’s N58.47 trillion budget plan aimed at consolidating economic reforms and boosting growth.

The budget is based on a projected crude oil price of $64.85 a barrel and includes a target oil output of 1.84 million barrels a day. It also projects an exchange rate of N1,400 to the Dollar.

President Tinubu said inflation had plunged to an annual rate of 14.45 per cent in November from 24.23 per cent in March, while foreign reserves had surged to a seven-year high of $47 billion.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was dominated by the bulls but it continues to face increased pressure after million in liquidations in previous session over accelerating declines, with Dogecoin (DOGE) recovering 4.2 per cent to trade at $0.1309.

Further, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 3.9 per cent to $1.90, Cardano (ADA) rose by 3.5 per cent to $0.3728, Solana (SOL) jumped by 3.4 per cent to $126.23, Ethereum (ETH) climbed by 2.9 per cent to $2,982.42, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 2.0 per cent to sell for $853.06, Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 1.7 per cent to $88,281.21, and Litecoin (LTC) soared by 1.2 per cent to $76.50, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.