NSE market indicators drop further by 1.53%

The Nigerian stock market indices sustained negative growth on Thursday, with the market capitalisation dropping further by N234 billion.

Our correspondent reports that the market capitalisation lost N234 billion or 1.53 per cent to close at N15.091 trillion compared with N15.325 trillion posted on Wednesday.

In the same vein, the All-Share Index, which opened at 42,839.52, shed 654.14 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 42,185.38, due to loses by Seplat, Mobil and Dangote Cement.

Commenting on the market performance, Dr Uche Uwaleke, the Head of Banking and Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said that monetary and fiscal policies uncertainties contributed to the trend.

Uwaleke said that another major reason was because investors had already priced-in their expectations in tier one banks going by their third quarter results.

He said that investors had taken positions in some of these stocks before the release of their audited results.

“Going by the Q3 results of these tier one banks, investors anticipated impressive results from them and had already priced-in these expectations in their stock prices before now,’’ Uwaleke said.

Conversely, Seplat recorded the highest loss to lead the laggards’ table with a loss of N17.50 to close at N767.50 per share.

Mobil trialed with a loss of N7.40 to close at N176.30, while Dangote Cement depreciated by N6.20 to close at N262.60 per share.

Unilever dipped N4.90 to close at N52.90, while Conoil decreased by N1.75 to close at N33.45 per share.

Conversely, Nestle Nigeria led the gainers’ table for the day, appreciating by N15 to close at N1, 395 per share.

Nigerian Breweries followed with a gain of N2.10 to close at N133, while Dangote Sugar Refinery added 80k to close at N22 per share.

Stanbic IBTC advanced by 65k to close at N49.80, while NPF Microfinance Bank increased by 18k to close at N2.02 per share.

Zenith International Bank was the most active stock for the day, trading 66.95 million shares worth N1.94 billion.

FBN Holdings followed with an account of 48.43 million shares valued at N544.18 million, while Regency Alliance Insurance traded 41.19 million shares worth N11.53 million.

Fidelity Bank sold 32.64 million shares valued at N83.36 million, while United Bank for Africa exchanged 27.03 million shares worth N318.37 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded rose by 8.34 per cent as investors bought and sold 404.66 million shares valued at N6.03 billion in 5,403 deals.

It was reported that this was in contrast with a turnover of 373.52 million shares worth N6.85 billion in 5,220 deals on Wednesday.