Bears Emerge as Index Drops By 0.3% Amid Investors’ Apathy
2 min read
Nigeria Stock Exchange
The volatile pattern of the market, occasioned by the ongoing anxiety in Nigeria’s political environment has continued to drive cautious trading by investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as the All-share index depreciates by 0.3% yesterday.
Last week Thursday, the NSE’s All-share index had opened on a sharp gap down in the morning session, which was sustained until afternoon, as high cap stocks that had suffered losses appreciated in price, before retracing up.
Also, at the end of transactions on Friday, the gains recorded on the previous session were enough to push the indices further.
However, at the end of yesterday’s transactions, the previous trading day’s positive trend was reversed, as the gains were not enough to push the indices further.
Specifically, All Share Index (NSE-ASI) shed 114.81 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.32 per cent to close at 35,311.36 points.
Also, the market capitalisation declined by N42 billion to close at N12.891 trillion.
The negative performance was driven by profit-taking in Dangote Cement, Unilever Nigeria, UAC of Nigeria, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria and Ikeja Hotel.
Analysts at Codros Capital Limited said: “Our outlook for equities in the near to medium term remain conservative, in the absence of a near-term one-off positive catalyst; and more so, amidst brewing political concerns.
However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term.”
Market breadth closed positive, with 26 gainers versus 14 losers.
Diamond Bank and Niger Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at N1.21 and 44 kobos per share, respectively, while Flourmill Nigeria followed with a gain of 9.77 per cent to close at N23.60 per cent.
Linkage Assurance appreciated by 9.46 per cent to close at 81 kobos, while Jaiz Bank rose 8.33 per cent to close at 52 kobos per share.
On the other hand, First Aluminium led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, to close at 36 kobos per share.
Ikeja Hotel shed 9.68 per cent to close at N2.52, while Universal Insurance depreciated by 9.09 per cent to close at 40 kobos per share.
Japaul Oil declined by 7.69 per cent to close at 24 kobo and Secure Electronic Technology shed 4.76 per cent to close at 20 kobos per share.
The total volume traded depreciated by 66.12 per cent to 178.81 million shares, worth N2.02 billion, and traded in 2,981 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company topped the activity chart with 19.23 million shares valued at N73.05 million.
