For the second consecutive week, trading at the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited continued southward, amid sustained weak sentiment, especially on Dangote Cement shares.
The All-Share Index dipped by 0.68 per cent to close at 41,882.97 basis points, even as the market capitalisation moderated to close at N21.854tn, leaving investors with further loss of N149bn.
Analysis on the week’s trading session showed that 27 equities depreciated in price, 35 appreciated 94 remained unchanged.
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Total equity turnover of 2.630 billion shares worth N26.9bn in 20,848 deals exchanged hands among investors in the week under review.
Measured by volume, the financial services industry led the activity chart with 2.234 billion shares valued at N21.45bn in 11,482 deals. This represented 84.95 per cent and 79.73 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
While the services industry followed with 157.089 million shares worth N695.798m in 465 deals, the consumer goods industry traded a turnover of 71.016 million shares worth N1.708bn in 3,019 deals.
FBN Holdings, Sterling Bank and C&I Leasing contributed 61.13 per cent and 54.84 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively, accounting for 1.607 billion shares worth N14.75bn in 1,646 deals.
Meanwhile, Unity Bank led the losers’ table shedding 15.69 per cent to close at 43 kobo, while DANGCEM lost N28 to close at N252.
Other top declined stocks included Linkage Assurance, which moderated by 8.94 per cent to close at 51 kobo; Associated Bus Company, which suffered 8.82 per cent loss to 31 kobo; and May and Baker Nigeria, which dropped by 8.69 per cent to close at N4.10.
In line with some analysts’ expectations, the domestic equities market closed in the red zone, but the market appeared to be recovering from the bearish turn, as most sub-indices tracked closed strongly in the green territory.
The banking, insurance, consumer goods and oil and gas indices gained 5.55 per cent, 1.24 per cent, 0.11 per cent and 1.27 per cent to close at 402.71bps, 190.86bps, 546.96bps and 352.67bps respectively, while the industrial index fell by 5.42 per cent to close at 2,073.32bps.
On the gainers list, Meyer led the pack appreciating by 50 per cent to close at 33 kobo. Consolidated Hallmark Insurance followed by 25 per cent to close at 55 kobo; Academy Press by 20.51 per cent to close at 47 kobo; UPDC by 19.19 per cent to close at N1.18; and Royal Exchange by 13.21 per cent to close at 60 kobo.
Meanwhile, market activity came in strong, as investors demanded more of banking shares. To this end, analysts expect the local stock market to be bullish this week amid renewed interest in banking shares.
“We feel this would spread across other real sector companies too as evident in the share price of Guinness among others,” researchers at Cowry Asset Management said.
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