Chinwendu Obienyi
Investor sentiments on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) strengthened into the first trading day of April and the beginning of the second quarter as financial markets across the country resumed from the Easter break.
Accordingly, the Year-to-Date gain dropped to 6.83 per cent even as the All Share Index (ASI), owing to renewed profit taking in bellwether stocks across the key counters of the market, nosedived by 1.56 per cent to close at 40,855.64 points.
All sector indices posted losses, led by the Industrial Goods (-3.35 per cent) index, and followed by the Consumer Goods (-0.60 per cent), Oil & Gas (-0.49 per cent), Banking (-0.42 per cent), and Insurance (-0.06 per cent) indices. The impact of the sell-offs knocked off about N235 billion from the market capitalisation, which opened at N14.993 trillion but close at N14.758 trillion even as market breadth remained negative with 36 stocks declining and 11 others advancing.
Fidelity Bank topped the losers’ chart with 9.33 per cent to close at N2.43 per share. Transcorp followed with 9.19 per cent to close at N1.68, WAPCO lost by 4.08 per cent to close at N43.45, Dangote Cement fell by 3.46 per cent to close at N251 while GTB depreciated by 2.91 per cent to close at N43.40 per share.
On the flip side, Caverton topped the gainers’ chart with 8.99 per cent to close at N2.91 per share. Law Union followed with 4.11 per cent to close at 0.76 kobo, ETI added 3.98 per cent to close at N17, Glaxosmithkline appreciated by 2.50 per cent to close at N34.85 while NASCON increased by 2.38 per cent to close at N21.50 per share.
Zenith Bank was the most traded stock with 88.19 million shares valued at N2.63 billion. Transcorp sold 60.005 million shares worth N101.061 million, while Sterling Bank ranked third with 40,490 million valued at N70.442 million.
In all, the total volume of stocks traded stood at 365,719 million shares valued at N6.26 billion in 4,173 deals compared with 272,613 million shares valued at N3.71 billion, which changed hands in 4,368 deals on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says commercial banks have increased the collateral requirements demanded from all business sizes for new loan applications. In its Credit Conditions Survey report for the first quarter of 2018, CBN said banks will demand more collateral in the next quarter. “More collateral requirements were demanded from all firm sizes on approved new loan application in Q1 2018…”