Chinwendu Obienyi
Following losses recorded in the shares of GT Bank, International Breweries and Dangote Cement, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped N228 billion in two consecutive trading sessions.
The market capitalisation had opened the week at N11.905 trillion, but due to persistent bearish sentiments, closed Tuesday’s session at N11.677 trillion.
Furthermore, the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 1.02 per cent to close at 31,313.36 points while Year-to-Date (YtD) loss stood at -0.4 per cent.
However, activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced by 71.0 and 22.7 per cent to 219.5 million units and N2.5 billion respectively, exchanged in 3,345 deals.
At the sound of the closing gong, 30 stocks depreciated in value while eight others appreciated. International Breweries topped the losers’ chart with 9.93 per cent to close at N24.05 per share, UPDCredit was next with 9.24 per cent to close at N5.40, AG Leventis fell by 8.82 per cent to close at 0.31 kobo, Jaiz Bank declined by 8.62 per cent to close at 0.53 kobo while Linkage Assurance dropped 7.94 per cent to close at 0.58 kobo.
On the flipside, Law Union topped the gainers’ chart with 7.69 per cent to close at 0.56 kobo per share. UAC-Prop followed with a gain of 7.14 per cent to close at N1.95, UCAP increased by 4.13 per cent to close at N3.28, WAPCO garnered 4 per cent to close at N13 while AIICO rose by 2.82 per cent to close at 0.73 kobo.
The top traded stocks by volume were FBN Holdings (60.1 million units), Zenith Bank (46.5 million units) and Diamond Bank (14.5 million units) while Zenith Bank (N1.1 billion), FBN Holdings (N493.1 million) and Dangote Cement (N437.4 million) were the top traded stocks by value.
Reacting, Analysts at Afrinvest in an emailed note to Daily Sun said, “despite the consecutive negative performance recorded, we expect investor bargain hunting to drive market performance over the near term.”