NSE: Transactions defy 2018 budget signing, down by 0.10%

Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday failed to react positively to the 2018 budget signed by President, Muhammadu Buhari, as the major market indicators declined further.

Specifically, the All-Share Index dropped by 39.08 points or 0.10 per cent to close at 38,605.07 compared with 38,644.15 achieved on Tuesday, due to losses by some highly capitalised stocks.

Also, the market capitalisation dropped to N13.984 trillion against N14.006 trillion recorded on Tuesday, indicating a loss of N22 billion.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd said the market did not react to the budget signing because it was long overdue.

Omordion said the 2018 budget was over delayed with the assent coming in the sixth month of the year.

He said the stock market would react accordingly when the budget implementation commences.

Seplat led the laggards’ table with a loss of N37.70 to close at N717.20 per share.

Nigerian Breweries came second with a drop of N1.10 to close at N109, while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria declined by 80k to close at N25.20 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank shed 35k to close at N40.65, while Custodian and Allied Insurance was down by 26k to close at N5.01 per share.

On the other hand, Forte Oil led the gainers’ table during the day, improving by 65k to close at N35.80 per share.

Eterna Oil trailed with a gain of 59k to close at N7.20, while Zenith International Bank appreciated by 50k to close at N26 per share.

Stanbic IBTC gained 25k to N49, while Ecobank Transnational increased by 20k to close at N20.20 per share.

Similarly, the volume of shares traded declined by 31.43 per cent with an exchange of 267.76 million shares valued at N3.83 billion in 4,786 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 390.47 million shares worth N6.12 billion exchanged in 3,889 deals on Tuesday.

Zenith International Bank was the most active stock during the day, trading 44.84 million shares valued at N1.15 billion.

FBN Holdings followed with an account of 38.69 million shares worth N411.82 million, while Access Bank traded 25.82 million shares valued at N266.67 million.

United Bank for Africa traded 14.21 million shares worth N151.65 million, while Transcorp exchanged 13.63 million shares valued at N19.58 million.