Trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained a sliding profile yesterday, as more blue-chip stocks depreciated in price, causing the All-Share Index (ASI) to dip further by 0.10 per cent.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the ASI fell by 43.78 absolute points or 0.10 per cent to close at 42,000.01 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation decreased by N23 billion to close at N21.971 trillion
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large value stocks, including Mills of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Lafarge Africa, Champion Breweries, and UAC of Nigeria (UACN).
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “We believe the expectations of and trend in corporate releases will influence performance this week.”
Vetiva Dealing & Brokerage also said: “The bears continued to dominate the domestic bourse in the last three sessions, pushing the ASI down by 0.97 per cent WTD, while the YTD performance reduced to +4.29% (vs +5.32 per cent posted on Friday).
“Given the improvement seen in some mid-cap stocks today, coupled with the rise in market breadth from 0.18x posted yesterday to 0.70x today, we expect the ASI to return to the positive region tomorrow, due to some expected bargain hunting activities.”
Market sentiment was negative, as 27 stocks declined, relative to 19 gainers. NCR Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 9.94 per cent to close at N3.43 per share.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance followed with 9.52 per cent to close at 46 kobo, while Prestige Assurance rose 9.09 per cent to close at 48 kobo.
McNichols Consolidated Plc advanced 8.93 per cent to close at 61 obo, and Eterna gained 7.69 per cent to close at N5.60 kobo, per share.
On the other hand, Linkage Assurance led the losers’ chart by 9.88 per cent to close at 73 kobo, per share. Champion Breweries followed with 9.84 per cent to close at N3.39 kobo.
Regency Alliance Insurance fell 9.38 per cent to close at 29 kobo. African Alliance Insurance shed 9.09 per cent to close at 20 kobo, and Wapic Insurance lost 8.47 per cent to close at 54 kobo, per share.
The total volume traded also fell by 9.2 per cent to 504.837 million shares worth N5.310 billion, traded in 5,887 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) topped the activity chart with 75.550 million shares valued at N434.421 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 60.667 million shares worth N2.01 billion, while FCMB Group traded 50.404 million shares at N173.546 million.
Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 44.351 million shares valued at N45.914 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 31.504 million shares worth N831.984 million.
