All-Share Index Closes 0.45% Lower as Equities Markets Further

Nigeria’s equities market fell further Wednesday as the bears tightened their hold after regaining control yesterday.

Consequently, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index depreciated by 0.45 per cent to close at 37,253.25, driving down the year-to-date decline to 2.59 per cent.

A total of 25 stocks, still dominated by bellwether counters, shed value, while 17 appreciated. Heavy weights such as Dangote Cement, GTBank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc were among the price losers. However, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc recorded the highest price loss of 10 per cent to close at N27.00 per share, trailed by Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc with 8.8 per cent to be at N0.31. Linkage Assurance Plc and Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc went down by 8.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

Other top losers included: Japual Oil & Maritime Services Plc (8.3 per cent); DN Tyre Plc(8.0 per cent); Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc (7.5 per cent); Unity Bank Plc (7.2 per cent) and Skye Bank Plc (7.1 per cent).

On the other hand, Custodian Investment Plc led the gainers, chalking up 10 per cent to close at N6.27 per share. MCnichols Plc appreciated by 9.8 per cent. Double One Plc and Equity Assurance Plc advanced 9.3 per cent and 9.0 per cent in that order.

Other top price gainers were: WAPIC Insurance Plc (6.6 per cent); Forte Oil Plc (4.8 per cent); Capital Oil Plc (3.1 per cent); AIICO Insurance Plc (3.0 per cent) and UAC of Nigeria Plc (2.6 per cent).

Meanwhile, activity level was mixed as volume traded increased by 34.7 per cent to 285.1 million shares while value traded declined by 0.4 per cent to N3.7 billion.

But the most traded stocks by volume were Access Bank Plc (116.0 million shares ), Zenith Bank Plc (41.1 million shares) and Transcorp Plc (23.7 million shares) while the most traded stocks by value were Access Bank Plc (N1.2 billion), Zenith Bank Plc (N1.0 billion) and GTBank Plc (N0.6 billion).

Sectorally, two out of the five sectors tracked appreciated. The NSE Oil & Gas Index rose 1.7 per cent, followed by the NSE Banking Index that advanced 0.01 per cent. Conversely, the NSE Industrial Goods Index led losers, shedding 2.3 per cent, while the NSE Insurance Index and NSE Consumer Goods Index fell 1.0 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.