NSE: Investors Lose N367bn In 2 Days

The bear yesterday maintained its stronghold on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as major blue-chip companies joined the league of losers, causing market capitalisation and the All-Share Index to remain in the red zone.

Market watchers have attributed the resurgence of bears to profit taking by investors whose consequential effect was a loss of N367billion or 3.4 per cent within the two days of trading in the value of equities.

The key benchmark indices maintained downtrend, taking hits majorly from Medium CAP stocks led by Diamond Bank and nahco while continuous bargain activities witnessed in Conglomerates, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrial Goods and Services sectors also contributed to the outlook recorded yesterday.

In the same vein, the market capitalisation of equities depreciated by N136 billion.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday the NSE All-Share Index depreciated by 423.43 points or 1.26 per cent to close at 33,665.58 from 34,089.01 recorded on Monday while the market capitalisation of equities declined to N10.774 trillion from 10.910 trillion, representing a drop of N136 billion or 1.26 per cent as market sentiments remained negative.

During transactions 12 stocks appreciated in price during the day as against 31 that depreciated in value.

Wapic led the gainers’ table with a gain of 9.48 per cent to close at N1.27 per share while Okomuoil Plc followed with a gain of 9.28 per cent to close at N106.00 per share, among other price gainers.
On the other hand, Diamond Bank led on the price losers’ table, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N5.67 per share while nahco Plc followed with a loss of 9.93 per cent to close at N5.08 per share, among other price losers.

Further analysis of the trading showed that the Banking subsector of the Financial Services sector remained the most active during the week (measured by turnover volume); with 384.2 million shares worth N3.5 billion exchanged by investors in 3,534 deals.

Volume in the Banking subsector was largely driven by activity in the shares of Access Bank Plc and UBA.

Other financial institutions subsector, boosted by activity in the shares of FBN Holdings Plc followed in the day’s activity chart with a subsector turnover of 66.8 million shares valued at N826 million traded in 947 deals.

On the whole investors exchanged a total of 573.7 million shares valued at N5.8 billion in 7,231 transactions.

Source: Leadership