UMORU ABDULKADIR
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday reversed its rising profile, following sell-offs in high cap stocks of Dangote Cement, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, Bua Cement as well as Zenith Bank Plc, resulting in a depreciation in the market capitalization by N128 billion.
The All-Share Index declined by 247.81 basis points or 0.84 per cent to close at 29,462.76 points as against 29,710.56 points recorded the previous day, while the market capitalization dipped N128 billion or 0.84 per cent to settle at N15.176 trillion in contrast to N15.304 trillion achieved on Monday.
Consequently, the market breadth as measured by investors’ sentiments closed negative with 15 gainers led by Lafarge Africa Plc against 16 losers topped by Dangote Cement Plc.
A breakdown of the price movement chart shows that Dangote Cement led the worst-performing stocks by value of shares on the day with a loss of 200 kobo to close at N173 per share, followed by Guaranty Trust Bank which declined by 180 kobo to close at N32.2 per share. Access Bank shed 70 kobo to close at N10.05 per share.
While Bua Cement dropped 55 kobo to close at N36.45 per share, Zenith Bank Plc fell by 40 kobo to finish today’s trading at N22.35 per share to round off the chart for the top five losers.
Lafarge Africa Plc on the other hand, led the best-performing stocks, as it recorded 100 kobo gain to close at N17.35 per share, followed by Nigeria Breweries which added 90 kobo to close at N52 per share. MTN Nigeria inched up 20 kobo to end Tuesday’s trading at N128.5 per share.
While Oando Plc nicked 8 kobo to close at N3.6 per share, United Capital Property increased by 5 kobo to finish at N2.75 per share, among others.
Zenith Bank, Access Plc and United Bank for Africa were the most active stocks in terms of value to boost market turnover, while Zenith Bank and Access Bank topped market value list.
Commenting on Tuesday bearish outlook, an analyst at Ecobank, Mr. Kunle Ezun, said today’s negative outlook was due to profit-taking activities in high caps stock as well sell-offs in banking stocks.
He attributed today’s loss to Investors’ apathy to buy impacted by volatility in the global stock market and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) global market uncertainty projections.
He maintained that investors should take positions in quality names with a medium to long-time investment returns, as prices remain attractive at current levels as they expect 2019 full-year financial statements of blue-chip companies.
Comments are closed.