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Investors at the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded additional losses at the close
of trading session on Monday, in spite of the extension of trading
hours aimed at improving market performance.

The Exchange market
capitalisation of the 201 First-Tier equities closed yesterday at
N7.918 trillion, after opening the day at N7.925 trillion, reflecting
0.08 percent decline or over N7 billion losses. Meanwhile, the market
recorded N43 billion losses last Friday after gaining about N28 billion
the previous day.

The NSE All-Share
Index also shed 0.08 percent or a loss of 21.48 units on Friday’s
figures of 24,807.04 basis points, to close on Monday at 24,785.56. Law
Union and Rock Insurance, Guaranty Trust Bank, and First City Monument
Bank were the most traded stocks yesterday, followed by First Bank and
Skye Bank.

Profit taking

Market watchers
said the Exchange witnessed a decline on account of weakness observed
in bargain activities due to profit taking tendency recorded across the
sectors. The NSE Exchange sectoral indexes closed negative as NSE 30,
which basically measures the performance of blue chips in the market,
dropped by 0.12 percent.

The NSE Oil &
Gas shed the highest point by 1.21 percent; Food & Beverages
declined by 0.76 percent; NSE Insurance declined by 0.29 percent while
Banking, the only gainer, reversed the previous negative outlook to
gain by 0.60 percent.

The number of
gainers at the close of trading session on Monday closed higher at 24
positions, as against the 22 gainers recorded previous session, while
losers closed lower at 36 stocks compared with the 37 losers recorded
on Friday.

Most active

The Banking sector
led the market transaction volume today with 161.80 million units
valued at N1.34billion exchanged in 3,527 deals, as against 93.66
million units valued at N651.29million exchanged in 2,763 deals
recorded on Friday. The volume recorded in the sector was driven by
transaction in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank, FCMB, First Bank,
Skye Bank, and Oceanic Bank.

The total volume of
94.49 million units valued at N980.70 million traded in the shares of
the five stocks accounted for 30.56 percent of the entire market volume
and their value represented 40.76 percent of the market’s
value.Transaction volume on the Exchange grew by 57.31 percent to close
at 309.20 million units exchanged in 6,212 deals, as against a decline
of 11.02 percent recorded at previous trading to close at 196.55
million units exchanged in 5,126 deals.

Meanwhile, the
management of NSE lifted off technical suspension on Crusader Nigeria,
Intercontinental Wapic Insurance, Staco Insurance, The Tourist Company
of Nigeria, and Arbico Plc.

The extension

The Capital Market
Committee had last Monday approved the extension of the trading hours
from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm, as against the former 9.30 to 12.30 pm. The
Interim Administrator of the NSE, Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the extension “was
a right step in the right direction,” adding that “it was one of the
strategic moves by the leadership of The Exchange to reposition the
market for enhanced competitiveness.”

Mr. Ikazoboh said the extension would give foreign investors,
especially those in the United States of America, an opportunity to
participate in the Nigerian market.