Chinwendu Obienyi
Transaction proceedings on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on a negative note at the close of trading yesterday as investors resumed from a two-day holiday with profit taking.
The All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 0.86 per cent to settle at 31,692.63 points while Year-to-Date loss worsened to -17.1 per cent and market capitalisation fell by N100.2 billion to close at N11.576 trillion, down from N11.7 trillion.
Consequently, performance across market was largely positive as three out of five indices closed higher. The Oil & Gas index gained the most, up by 1.27 per cent due to gains in Forte (+9.9 per cent), it was followed by the Banking and Consumer Goods indices, which rose by 0.23 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively following price appreciation in Diamond (+9.7 per cent) and Nascon (+1.4 per cent)
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On the flipside, sell pressures in the shares of DANGCEM (-3.4 per cent) and NEM (-9.2 per cent) dragged down the Industrial (-2.11 per cent) and Insurance (-0.69 per cent) indices.
Similarly, activity level fell as volume and value of stocks traded dipped by 36.7 and 49.8 per cent to 452.26 million units and N2.60 billion respectively, in 3,520 deals.
Market breadth was, however, positive as 30 stocks advanced while 16 others declined. Conoil topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N23.10, Mutual Benefits was next with 10 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo, NPF Microfinance Bank garnered 10 per cent to close at N1.65, Forte Oil rose by 9.92 per cent to close at N34.35 while the shares of Transcorp increased by 9.84 per cent to close at N1.34 per share.
On the other hand, UACN led the laggards with 10 per cent to close at N10.80 per share. NEM followed with a 9.15 per cent loss to close at N2.68, Niger Insurance fell by 8.33 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo, Wema Bank dropped 8.20 per cent to close at 0.56 kobo while UPL decreased by 5.66 per cent to close at N2.
Medview Airline was the toast of investors, selling 146.94 million shares worth N293.88 million, NEM was next with the sale of 45.99 million shares valued N135.55 million while Transcorp traded 37.50 million shares worth N48.94 million.
Market analysts are of the opinion that the last few trading sessions at the NSE might be slightly positive.
Specifically, Analysts at Afrinvest said, “We expect market performance over the last few days of the year to be slightly positive as portfolio managers re-balance portfolios.”
Speaking to Daily Sun, Chief Executive Officer, Sofunix Investment, Sola Oni, noted that the current trend is expected to continue till the end of the first quarter next year.
According to Oni, Real investors are likely to adopt wait and see attitude of the market while speculators may intensify moving their asset classes from variable to fixed income. He however urged that investors to take advantage of low valuation of stocks and strong market fundamentals to beef up their portfolio.
