NSE market capitalisation drops below N11trn mark

Weekly trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed on Monday on bearish note with the market capitalisation dropping below N11 trillion mark amid price loses by some blue chips.

Our correspondent reports that the market capitalisation dipped by N171 billion or 1.54 per cent to close at N10.955 trillion from the N11.124 trillion achieved on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index, which opened at 29,616.38, shed 454.14 or 1.53 per cent to close at 29,162.24.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the recent bearish tend to low liquidity and poor investor confidence.

Omordion said that ongoing volatility woulf continue as investors and fund managers rebalanced their portfolios with eyes on the political space and ongoing full year company earnings and post-election market dynamics.

“With the price of major blue chips continuing to drop in recent weeks, we expect speculative trading to shape the market’s direction in this trading week despite the seeming negative outlook.

“The volatility witnessed last week was driven by traders and investors repositioning ahead of dividend declarations by major listed companies,” he said.

Omordion said that investors should review their positions in line with their investment goals, strength of companys’ numbers and act as events unfold in the global and domestic environment.

Mobil led the price gainers’ table during the day, increasing by N1 to close at N171 per share.

Eterna followed with a gain of 25k to close at N4.25, while Learn Africa appreciated by 11k to close at N1.34 per share.

Caverton gained 8k to close at N2.60, while Neimeth added 5k to close at 56k per share.

Conversely, Dangote Cement recorded the highest price loss of N3.50 to close at N185.50 per share.

Stanbic IBTC trailed with a loss of N3.05 to close at N43.20, while Guinness was down by N2.45 to close at N60 per share.

GTB lost N1 to close at N34, while Union Bank shed 50k to close at N8.50 per share.

In spite of drop in two market indicators, the volume of shares transacted improved by 13.63 per cent, while value of shares increased by 50.71 per cent.

Consequently, investors exchanged 455.88 million shares valued at N5.26 billion shares in 3,993 deals.

This was in contrast to the 401.19 million shares worth N3.49 billion exchanged in 3,575 deals on Friday.

Sterling Bank was the most active stock, trading 93.42 million shares valued at N242.19 million.

GTB followed with 78.33 million shares worth N2.66 billion, while Triple Gee traded 60 million shares valued at N42 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 26.64 million shares worth N540.69 million, while Access Bank sold 24.89 million shares valued at N140.08 million.