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Chinwendu Obienyi
Amidst concerns over a record rise in COVID-19 infections as well as a dip in the price of oil on Monday, Nigeria’s stock market fallged of theb trading week in red as its All Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.29 per cent.
This came as sell-offs in BUA Cement, Stanbic and Dangote Sugar, left the market’s index at 24,753.92 points while its capitalisation fell by N38 billion to close session at N12.913 trillion. This resulted in the year-to-date (ytd) loss worsening to -7.8 per cent.
The market took a hit as Brent crude fell by 0.2 per cent, to $42.04 a barrel by 4pm, while U.S. crude fell to $39.72 a barrel, down by 0.3 per cent. Both contracts had risen to about 9 per cent within the past week with Brent crude futures entering backwardation in which analysts said that oil required for immediate delivery now costs more than the oil to be provided later, an indication of tightening supply.
Hence, it was no surprise as activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) waned with the volume and value of stocks traded declining by 28.6 and 34.4 per cent to 124.68 million units and N1.31 billion respectively, exchanged in 3,843 deals.
