NSE: Investors on
Sallah rush exchange over N2bn on equities
By OMODELE ADIGUN
Friday, December 5, 2008
|
•Photo:
Sun News Publishing
|
| |
As investors continued to offload their shares for
cash in preparation for Sallah festivities, over N2
billion changed hands on equities Thursday on the Lagos
floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
At the close of business, the investors exchanged 361.8
million shares worth N2.22 billion in 7,876 deals. Analysts
believe that the Muslim celebration holding early next
week was responsible for the turnover, which was 2.6
per cent higher than the previous day's figure of 352.5
million shares.
The bulk of this came from the Information Communication
& Telecommunication sub-sector which recorded 143.6
million shares valued at N217.34 million and exchanged
in 178 deals.
The most patronized stock for the day was Chams whose
investors traded 142.3 million shares worth more than
N211.7 million to account for 39.4 per cent of the volume
of business for the day.
The banking stocks came second on the activity chart
as their investors bartered 128.8 million shares worth
N1.4 billion in 4,831 deals.
Meanwhile, the All Share Index continued to cascade
as it lost more than 535 points or 1.7 per cent to drop
to 30,768.19 points. Its twin indicator, the market
capitalisation fell to N6.81 trillion.They opened for
business at 31,303.66 points and N6.923 trillion respectively.
The losses suffered by the heavily capitalised stocks,
coupled with the general bearish trend in the market,
was believed to have dragged down the market indicators.
When trading ended for the day, the number of losers
to gainers stood at 63 to 12.
Guinness suffered the highest loss for the day as its
stock price plummeted by 402 kobo to close at N76.52
per share .Trailing it were Oando,7Up,NB and UAC-Property
which fell by 338 kobo, 204 kobo,157 kobo and 124 kobo
to close at N64.36, N38.81, N29.93 and N23.66 respectively
. Those that also ranked among the top 10 losers were
Zenith Bank, Ashaka Cement and UBA with 109 kobo,93
kobo and 88 kobo to close at N20.81, N17.94 and N17.02
respectively.
The rest were NNFM and Costain with 74 kobo and 67 kobo
to close at N14.16 and N12.79 respectively. On the gainers'
camp, Union Bank was the number one as it grossed another
81 kobo, in addition to the 77 kobo it gained on Wednesday,
to raise its price to N17.15 per share.
Afribank,Vitafoam, WAPCO and Custody Insurance netted
29 kobo, 26 kobo,19 kobo and 13 kobo in that order to
close at N11.20,N5.54,N23.99 and N3.12 respectively.Also
on the top 10 category was Benue Cement with 10 kobo
to close at N22.40 per share.The duo of Chams and FTN
Cocoa made 7 kobo each to close at N1.55 and N1.59 respectively.
Cornerstone and Hall Mark Insurance also moved up by
4 kobo apiece to close at N1.60 and 99 kobo respectively.
|
