UMORU ABDULKADIR
The Nigerian Stock Exchange trading activities closed negative on Tuesday, as it declined by 0.13 per cent to reverse previous day’s gain to close at 26,660.44 points.
Tuesday’s downturn was impacted by loses recorded in Dangote Cement stocks, National Salt Company of Nigeria, and International Breweries, among others
Specifically, the All-Share Index dipped 34.68 basis points or 0.13 per cent to close at 26,660.44 points as against 26,695.18 points recorded on the first trading day of the week while the market capitalisation depreciated by N16.77 billion or 0.13 per cent to close at N12.868 trillion lower than N12.884 trillion achieved on Monday.
However, the investors’ sentiment to trade as measured by the market breadth closed positive with 17 gainers led by Presco Plc and 12 losers topped by Dangote Cement.
An analysis of the price movement chart showed that Dangote Cement led the worst performing stocks with a loss of 200 kobo to close at N140 per share, followed by National Salt Company of Nigeria which shed 75 kobo to close at N13.25 per share. International Breweries declined by 60 kobo to close at N9.5 per share.
While UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust dipped 40 kobo to settle at N4.05 per share, Lafarge Africa Plc depreciated by 30 kobo to close Tuesday’s trading at N13.9 per share, among others.
On the other hand, Presco Plc led the best-performing stocks on the day when it gained 400 kobo to close at N47.5 per share, followed by Guinness Plc which inched up 320 kobo to close at N35.6 per share. Access Bank Plc recorded 20 kobo gain to close at N10 per share.
While United Bank for Africa also added 20 kobo to close at N7.2 per share, United Capital Plc advanced by 10 kobo to close at N2.3 per share to round off the top five gainers’ table.
Like the previous day, banking stocks were again the investors’ toast as Access Bank’s stocks emerged the most active stocks, accounting for 106.8 million units of shares valued at N1.07 billion, followed by Guaranty Trust Bank, which exchanged 50.1 million shares estimated at N1.48 billion. Zenith Bank sold 46.6 million shares worth N873.5 million.
While Transnational Corporation traded 24 million shares estimated at N23.5 million, First City Monument Bank sold 20.5 million shares valued at N37.6 million to boost market turnover and market capitalisation.
On today’s market performance, analysts at Ecobank, Kunle Ezun said: “We expect investors to continue to lock in gains in stocks with strong high returns on investments, as the system’s liquidity inflows into the capital market linger.”
“With more liquidity inflows into the equity market, investors continue to search for an alternative asset to deploy idle fund.” He added that buying interest remained strong in some high caps stocks despite today’s loss.
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