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The value of equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)
depreciated further on Wednesday after closing negatively on Tuesday.

The NSE market capitalisation closed yesterday at N7.913
trillion from Tuesday’s figures of N7.920 trillion, reflecting N7 billion
losses or 0.08 per cent decrease. The market had lost N92 billion or 1.14 per cent
on Tuesday.

The All-Share Index also lost 0.08 per cent or 21.32 units on
Wednesday, down from 24,804.22 basis points to close at 24,782.90. The NSE
sectoral indexes recorded negative performance on Wednesday as the NSE-30
Index, which measures activities of blue chips in the market, dropped by 0.21
per cent.

The NSE Banking shed the highest points by 0.26 per cent; the
Food/Beverages plunged by 0.12 per cent, followed by the NSE Oil & Gas
which declined by 0.18 per cent, while the Insurance, the only gainer, went up
by 0.30 per cent.

Equity Analysts at Resource Cap, an investment advisory firm,
attributed “profit taking activities by investors” to the downturn, adding that
“sell pressures may continue across the sectors on the bourse.”

Low volume

At the close of Wednesday’s trading, a total of 253.22 million
shares valued at N1.930 billion were traded in 6,200 deals as against the
277.00 million shares worth N2.658 billion exchanged in 5,711 deals on Tuesday.
The banking subsector maintained its lead on the most active subsector chart
yesterday with 140.05 million units valued at N1.14 billion.

The volume recorded in the sector was driven by transaction in
the shares of Zenith Bank, United Bank and Access Bank. The Insurance subsector
followed, trading 26.047 million shares valued at N21.843 million. Transactions
in the subsector were largely driven by the shares of Aiico Insurance, NEM
Insurance and Lasaco Assurance.

The Mortgage companies subsector came third with investors
trading 26.032 million shares valued at N14.669 million. Investors in Resort
Savings & Loans, Union Homes Savings & Loans and Aso Savings &
Loans enhanced activities in the subsectors in terms of volume.

More gainers

The prices of 29 equities appreciated in value on Wednesday
while 20 depreciated. Okomu Oil led the price gainers, appreciating by 70 kobo
to close at N14.95 per share. Oando gained 70 kobo to close at N64.00 per share
while University Press grew by 29 kobo to close at N6.28 per share. African
Petroleum topped the price losers’ chart, depreciating by N1.31 to close at
N24.94 per share.

Ashaka Cement shed 91 kobo to close at N22.66 per share while
Ecobank Transnational Corporation lost 74 kobo to close at N15.26 per share.
Meanwhile, a total of 12 companies released their financial results at the NSE
floor on Wednesday.

Fidelity Bank, in its third quarter report, recorded a profit
after tax growth of 85.97 per cent. Nigerian Bottling Company third quarter
result shows a turnover growth of 14.06 per cent and profit after tax growth of
30.21 per cent.