Nigeria Content Online

The upbeat trading
recorded at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday could not be
sustained at the close of Wednesday’s proceedings.

The NSE market
capitalisation and the All-Share Index, the two market measuring
parameters, were down by 0.09 percent yesterday after appreciating by
0.39 percent on Tuesday.

Stock analysts
attributed the free falls to investors’ low-confidence in the market
following the recent development in the banking sector.

Dimeji Akintayo, an
equity analyst at Resource Cap, a portfolio management firm, said the
past few weeks have witnessed mass selloffs of bank stocks in line with
the Central Bank directive that banks must reduce their capital market
exposure to 10 percent by September 1st (yesterday).

“This development
has further created more uncertainties in the market because investors
really don’t know what direction the market is heading. We are all
trading with caution,” Mr. Akintayo said.

The market
capitalisation of the 199 First-Tier equities closed yesterday at
N5.941 trillion, after opening the day at N5.946 trillion, reflecting
over N5.19 billion losses. Meanwhile, about N23.15 billion was gained
the preceding day. The All-Share Index also shed 21.19 units on the
previous day’s figures of 24,268.24 basis points, to close at 24,247.05.

At the end of
Wednesday’s trading, the number of gainers closed lower at 31 compared
with the 36 recorded on Tuesday, while losers closed higher at 30
against the 26 recorded the previous trading day. African Petroleum
topped the gainers chart for the day with 5 percent price appreciation,
while Livestock topped the losers chart with 5 percent depreciation.

Sectoral review

In spite of
investors’ low patronage in the market, the banking subsector still led
the most active subsectors’ chart yesterday with 129.20 million volumes
of shares, valued at over N1.31 billion exchanged in 3,392 deals.
Volume in the subsector was driven by Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank,
Access Bank, and United Bank for Africa.

The breweries
subsector, yesterday, recorded one gainer to one loser, just as one
gainer to one loser was also recorded in the last two trading days. The
share price of Nigerian Breweries inches up by 2.01 percent while
Guinness share price lost 1.22 percent after Wednesday’s trading.

The conglomerates
subsector recorded three losers to two unchanged prices, compared to
two gainers to three unchanged prices recorded on Tuesday. The share
prices of PZ, UAC Nigeria, and Unilever Nigeria all lost by 3.99
percent, 2.00 percent, and 0.41 percent respectively, while the share
prices of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria and AG Leventis Plc
remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, the
management of the Exchange on Wednesday marked down the price of NCR
Plc for a dividend of 5 kobo; the payment date is 30th September. Also,
the price of National Salt Company Plc was marked down for a dividend
of 50 kobo; payment date 4th October, while the price of Associated Bus
Company Plc was marked for a dividend of 3 kobo.