Stock market sustains bearish performance

Chinwendu Obienyi

Losses in the shares of Zenith Bank, Dangote Flour and Union Bank further depreciated stock market indices as the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped N44 billion in two consecutive trading sessions.

Indices on the nation’s bourse had closed Monday’s session in the red with the All-Share Index (ASI) dropping 0.05 per cent and the market capitalisation closing at N10.973 trillion.

Tuesday’s session saw the ASI declining by 0.35 per cent to settle at 29,096.41 points while market capitalisation fell by N38 billion to close at N10.935 trillion from an opening session of N10.979 trillion as at 8am on Monday.

This represents a loss of N44 billion in two consecutive sessions with Year-to-Date (YTD) performance worsening to -7.4 per cent.

 However, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded surged 58.7 and 104.0 per cent to 430.26 million units and N2.83 billion respectively, in 4,512 deals.

At the close of transactions yesterday, 32 stocks depreciated in value while 11 others appreciated. Dangote Flour topped the losers’ chart with 9.86 per cent to close at N16 per share, Ikeja Hotel was next with 9.38 per cent to close at N1.45, Cadbury fell by 9.32 per cent to close at N10.70, Godlink Insurance lost 9.09 per cent to close at 0.30 kobo while Veritas Kapital declined by 9.09 per cent to close at 0.20 kobo.

On the flipside, Betaglass topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N62.70 per share. Courtville followed with a gain of 8.33 per cent to close at 0.26 kobo, Chams increased by 8.16 per cent to close at 0.53 kobo, Chip Plc rose by 7.41 per cent to close at 0.29 kobo while Regal Insurance garnered 4 per cent to close at 0.26 kobo.

Courtville (106.6 million units), Japaul oil (61.2 million units) and Access Bank (53.7 million units) were the top traded stocks by volume while GT Bank (N703.7 million), Zenith Bank (N458.6 million) and Access Bank (N378.3 million) were the top traded by value.

Reacting, Analysts at Afrinvest said, “Consequent on today’s bearish performance and the weak investors sentiment, we opine that subsequent trading sessions will continue to be bearish in the near term”.