Stock market closes on a negative note
The retreat witnessed at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday continued yesterday, as the performance of equities closed on a negative note.
The market capitalisation of 199 first-tier securities closed lower, as market net worth dropped by N78.64 billion at the close of Wednesday’s transaction. The NSE All-Share Index retreated by 1.26 percent, to close on a negative note.
Market watchers said equities’ value declined because short term traders focused on reaping part of the attractive profit recorded in recent rally sessions.
Equity research analysts at GTI Capital Limited, a stock brokerage firm, said most investors were scared-off the market due to the slight drop noticed on Tuesday.
“It sounds wise to take the little profit before it goes with pull back. Nevertheless, we advise that all investment decision should be linked with trend on each security; panic selling should be strictly avoided,” the analysts said.
The Exchange sectoral indexes reflected selling activities yesterday as NSE-30, which measures the performance of blue chips in the market, dropped by 1.21 percent. The NSE Food/Beverages dropped the highest points by 2.25 percent, followed by Banking, which dropped by 1.97 percent; the Oil/Gas dropped by 0.67 percent, while the NSE Insurance, the only gainer, appreciated by 0.23 percent.
Most active
The banking subsector on Wednesday led on the most active subsector table with 311.78 million shares valued at N1.65 billion, as against the 217.45 million units valued at N1.92 billion recorded on Tuesday.
The volume in the subsector was driven by shares of Unity Bank, Oceanic Bank, BankPHB, First Bank, and Guaranty Trust Bank. The total volume of 183.51 million units, valued at N899.87 billion, traded in the shares of the five stocks, accounted for 45.36 percent of the entire market volume.
Gainers decrease
The number of stocks that gained at the close of trading session on Wednesday closed lower at 14, as against 30 stocks recorded the previous day, while losers closed higher at 38, compared with the 28 recorded on Tuesday.
Custodian Insurance and Honeywell Flour topped the price gainers’ chart with an increase of 13 kobo and 11 kobo on their opening prices of N2.62 and N5.27 per share respectively. On the flip side, Flour Mills and Cadbury topped the chart with a decrease of N1.54 and N1.48, to close at N71.01 and N28.31 per share respectively.
Meanwhile, the Exchange, in a statement on Wednesday, said that Dangote Cement, which is billed for listing on 26th October, has submitted its unaudited results for nine months ended September 30.
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