Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Sell pressure on high cap stocks drags indices further by N64 billion

By Helen Oji
18 March 2020   |   4:14 am
Transactions on the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued on a downturn yesterday, following price losses suffered by most of the highly capitalised (high cap) stocks, as market capitalisation depreciated further by N64 billion.

Transactions on the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued on a downturn yesterday, following price losses suffered by most of the highly capitalised (high cap) stocks, as market capitalisation depreciated further by N64 billion.

Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 162.12 absolute points, representing a dip of 0.71 per cent to close at 22,543.07 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation size shed N84 billion to close at N11.748 trillion

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in most large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Cement, CAP Plc, Ardova Plc, NASCON Allied Industries (NASCON) and International Breweries.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “We expect the bearish sentiment to persist for the rest of the week. However, we note that there are opportunities for bargain hunting.”

Market breadth closed positive, with 27 gainers versus 12 losers. Access Bank, Lafarge Africa and United Capital recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at N6.05, N11.00 and N2.42, per share, respectively.

FCMB Group followed with a gain 9.66 per cent to close at N1.59, while Cadbury Nigeria and Caverton Offshore Support Group rose by 9.62 per cent each, to close N5.70 and N2.28, respectively, per share.

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria went up by 9.52 per cent to close at 69 kobo, while NPF Microfinance Bank rose by 9.41 per cent to close at 93 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, Dangote Cement and NASCON led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, to close at N137.70 and N8.55, respectively per share. Ardova Plc followed with a decline of 9.80 per cent to close at N13.80 per share while CAP Plc fell by 9.77 per cent to close at N18, per share.

International Breweries went down by 9.57 to close at N5.20, while Lasaco Assurance, Niger Insurance and Courteville Business Solutions shed 9.09 per cent each, to close at 20 kobo each, per share.

Also, the total volume of trades rose by 22.6 per cent to 675.91 million units, valued at N8.06 billion and exchanged in 7,368 deals. Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 173.94 million shares valued at N2.32 billion.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 131.06 million shares worth N2.57 billion, while FBN Holdings traded 119.27 million shares valued at N478.91 million.

Access Bank traded 92.03 million shares valued at N539.13 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) transacted 31.47 million shares worth N168.89 million.

0 Comments