Bargain hunting: NSE indices drop further by 1.30%

Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed on Thursday after the two-day holidays to mark Eid-el-Fitri on a bearish trend due to bargain hunting.

It was reported that the All-Share Index lost 401.22 points or 1.30 per cent to close at 30,527.07 compared with 30,928.29 on Monday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N178 billion or 1.30 per cent to close at N13.444 trillion against N13.623 trillion.

The market performance was influenced by price depreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are, Guinness Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, CI Leasing, Dangote Flour Mills and NEM Insurance.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited noted that “Following the continuous bearish performance, our outlook remains unchanged as investors are still in search of economic stimulus to spur investment in equities.”

Also, analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited said that “We anticipate a turnaround in a short while as market is expected to recover from the holiday spending.”

However, market breadth was positive with 23 gainers against 16 losers.

Julius Berger recorded the highest price gain of 9.90 per cent, to close at N21.65 per share.

Champion Breweries followed with a gain of 8.11 per cent, to close at N1.20, while Academy Press rose by 7.41 per cent to close at N29 per share.

Livestock Feeds gained by 6.78 per cent to close at 63k, while UACN rose by 5.60 per cent to close at N6.60 per share.

Conversely, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, to close at 36k per share.

Capital Oil came second with a decline 8.70 per cent to close at 21k, while Courteville Business Solutions declined by 8.33 per cent to close at 22k per share.

NEM Insurance declined by 8.07 per cent to close at N2.05, while Jaiz Bank down by 4.17 per cent, to close at 46k per share.

The total volume traded closed lower with an exchange of 217.33 million shares valued at N5.82 billion traded in 3,686 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 246.09 million shares worth N2.82 billion shares achieved in 3,850 deals.

Guaranty Trust Bank traded with 82.82 million shares valued at N2.59 billion.

Zenith Bank followed with 36.02 million shares worth N735.04 million, while UBA traded 8.05 million shares valued at N50.37 million.

FBN Holdings traded 7.52 million shares valued at N52.37 billion, while Oando transacted 6.2 million shares worth N23.71 million.