Nigeria Content Online

Trading
performances at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) got poorer after
Tuesday’s proceedings as investors record more losses, making it a
total loss of over N1 trillion since trading began this year.

The NSE market
capitalisation, which opened the year at N4.989 trillion, had
appreciated to N6.796 trillion during the second quarter of the year,
before it began depreciating at the start of the third quarter.

At the close of
Tuesday’s trading, the Exchange market capitalisation further plunged
to N5.992 trillion, after opening the day at N6.108 trillion,
reflecting 1.90 percent decline or over N116 billion losses. Meanwhile,
about N32 billion losses was recorded on Monday. The NSE All-Share
Index also shed 1.90 percent or a loss of 473.04 units on the previous
day’s figures of 24,976.65 basis points, to close at 24,503.61.

Some analysts said
that the negative market sentiments persist as a result of the gradual
fall of investors’ appetite for equities, which resulted to cut down in
investment activities for safety.

A chief executive
officer of a stockbroker firm, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We (stock
broking firms) are trading and treading cautiously because we are not
sure of what’s going to happen next in the market.”

He said until
Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the interim administrator of the NSE, achieves his
primary assignment of giving the Exchange a new head, “investor
confidence may not improve.”

Also, finance
analysts at Proshare Nigeria Limited said the present negative
performance serves as indications of continued reactions from the
investing public to the crisis, which has compounded the spate of
uncertainty in the market.

“It should be
apparent to all and sundry at this time that the present crisis, though
may be necessary for the paradigm shift needed for the kind of market
we deserve, the manner and how it is being handled may leave bitter
experiences for investors, at least in the short run,” they said.

Market performance

Meanwhile, the
number of gainers at the close of yesterday’s trading closed at 16,
compared with the 27 gainers recorded on Monday, while losers closed
higher at 57, compared with the 38 losers recorded the previous trading
day.

Nigerian Bottling
Company topped the gainers chart for the day with five percent price
appreciation, while Sterling Bank and Bagco topped the losers chart for
the day with five percent depreciations.

The banking
subsector led the market transaction volume on Tuesday with 158.783
million units valued at N1.275 billion, exchanged in 3,837 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank,
and UBA boosted the volume traded in the sector. The total volume of
82.807 million units valued at N774.595 million traded in the shares of
the four banks accounted for 52.15 percent of the entire sector volume.

The downward trend
also dominated trading activities in the banking sector yesterday as
the sector recorded two gainers to 18 losers, as against the four
gainers to 13 losers recorded the previous day.

At the Exchange’s floor yesterday, Airline Services & Logistics,
in its second quarter financial result of 2010, recorded 8.48 percent
decline in gross earnings and a 95.02 percent decline in profit after
tax.