NSE ends week trading on losing streak

Activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended for the week on a negative streak on Friday with the market capitalisation shedding N54 billion amid price loses.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that market capitalisation which opened trading at N8.774 trillion lost N54 billion or 0.62 per cent to close at N8.720 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 157.31 points or 0.62 per cent to close at 25,333.39, compared with 25,490.70 recorded on Thursday.

Dr Glenn Prince-Abbi, Executive Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Espera Global Corporation attributed the capital market headwinds to prevailing economic challenges and uncertainties.

Prince-Abbi said the stock market was a barometer used in measuring economic growth and development.

“These headwinds in the market are not stand-alone events which are cut off from the Nigerian economic ocean.”

Prince-Abbi said that the market could only experience improved growth and development with a healing of the economy.

Forte Oil recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ table, dropping by N6.20 to close at N62.80 per share.

Okomu Oil lost N3.88 to close at N36.20 and Dangote Cement dipped N1.51 to close at N159.99 per share.

Lafarge Wapco shed N1.40 to close at N42.70 and Julius Berger declined by N1.10 to close at N35 per share.

Conversely, Total topped the gainers’ chart with a gain of N22.85 to close at N245.85 per share.

Mobil followed with a growth of N7.95 to close at N208.97, while Presco garnered 22k to close at N44.70 per share.

Dangote Sugar rose by 19k to close at N6.20 and Africa Prudential appreciated by 13k to close at N2.92 per share.

However, the volume of shares traded improved by 48.87 per cent as investors staked N2.14 billion on 144.16 million shares traded in 2,459 deals.

This was against the 97.14 million shares worth N1.14 billion exchanged in 1,929 deals on Thursday.

A breakdown of the activity table indicated that FCMB Group emerged the most active with 33.97 million shares valued at N37.82 million.

Zenith Bank came second with an exchange of 20.03 million shares worth N280.99 million and Wema Bank sold 16.00 million shares valued at N8.33 million.

FBN Holdings accounted for 12.77 million shares worth N39.03, while Transcorp exchanged 7.39 million shares valued at N5.33 million.