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The decline in the value of equities at the Nigerian Stock
Exchange, yesterday, cuts across all sectors of the market.

The resilient nature noted in sectors like the conglomerates,
breweries, food and beverages in the past week, against the downward trend in
the market, could not be sustained after Thursday’s trading.

The All-Share Index yesterday declined by 0.72 per cent to close
at 27,227.26 basis points compared with the marginal decline of 0.05 per cent
recorded the previous day to close at 27,424.47. Market capitalisation also
followed with N44.611 billion losses to close at N6.622 trillion against the
N3.107 billion losses recorded yesterday to close at N6.667 trillion.

The number of gainers, at the close of trading session, dropped
to 23 from 33 gainers of yesterday .The numbers of losers on the other hand
closed at 58 compared with 59 of the previous trading day.

‘Sell pressures’

Analysing yesterday’s performance, equity research analysts at
Proshare Nigeria Limited, an investment advisory firm, in a statement, said the
decline recorded cut across all the sectors in the market.

“This was evident in the bearish outlook recorded in all the NSE
sectoral indices with the highest decline recorded in the Oil and Gas sector.
Massive sell pressures were also more pronounced in the Insurance and
Food/Beverages sectors,” they said.

The analysts added that notwithstanding the current downturn of
the market, “investors are enjoined to look out for the valued stocks whose
prices have declined as the present negative outlook in the market may not
last, most especially considering some of the positive developments in the
market.” All the four sectoral indices declined at the close of trading
session. The Exchange’s Food and Beverages index declined by 1.14 per cent to
close at 860.64; the Oil and Gas index dropped by2.61 per cent to close at 405.71;
the Banking index shed weight by 0.68 per cent; the Insurance also declined by
1.20 per cent to close at 197.73.

The banking sector was the most traded sector yesterday with
139.016 million units valued at N1.333 billion. Transactions in the shares of First
Bank Nigeria, Zenith Bank and Access Bank largely contributed to the volume
traded in the sector.

New listing

The management of the Exchange, on Thursday, listed Sun
International Limited’s 634,585,472 ordinary shares of 50k at N3.79 each on the
official list of the exchange. It also marked down the share price of Berger
Paints Plc for a dividend of 50k per share declared recently by the company’s
board of directors. The share price of Oando Plc was also marked down for 1 for
2 bonus declared.