Mixed third quarter performance: NSE indices drop further

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended in red on Thursday after increasing for two-consecutive days due to mixed third quarter result.

Our correspondent reports that Nigerian Breweries topped the losers chart, declining by N6 to close at N155 per share.

International Breweries trailed with a loss of N2.72 to close at NN51.78 and Forte Oil declined by N2.12 to close at N40.30 per share.

PZ Industries depreciated by N1 to close at N23, while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria lost 47k to close at N9.70 per share.

Consequetly, the market capitlisation shed N37 billion or 0.29 per cent to close lower at N12.638 trillion against N12. 675 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index which opened at 36,622.85 lost 105.37 points or 0.29 per cent to close at 36,517.48.

Market analysts attributed the development to mixed third quarter result declared by some quoted companies for the period ended Sept. 30, 2017.

They said that some of the results were below market expectations thereby leading to profit taking.

Conversely, NASCON led the gainers’ table with a gain N1.55 to close at N16.77 per share.

Presco followed with N1.50 to close at N66.50, while Lafarge Africa increased by N1.46 to close at N52 per share.

Dangote Sugar increased by N2.20 to close at 15.84 and Dangote Flour advanced 76k to close at N8.26 per share.

Also, the volume of shares transacted rose marginally by 7.15 per cent with a total of 356.81 million shares valued at N4.22 billion against 332.99 million shares worth N4.66 billion in 3,577 deals on Wednesday.

United Bank for Africa of the banking sub-sector was the toast of investors trading 90.52 million shares worth N842.01 million.

Fidelity Bank followed with a turnover of 37.07 million shares valued at N62.42 million and Custodian and Allied Insurance traded 35.54 million shares worth N142.10 million.

FCMB Group sold 31.72 million shares valued at N33.28 million, while Access Bank exchanged 25.31 million shares worth N249.62 million.