Bears take hold as Nigeria bourse sees red on week’s opening

… All Share Index down 0.39%

The bears continued their rampage through the Nigerian bourse as the week opened in the red extending losses from the previous trading session on Friday.

Investors settled down comfortably to take profits in Tier-one banking stocks, and this helped to drag the market’s All-Share index (ASI) by 0.39 percent. The index settled at the close of trading at 23,950.83 points, leaving year-to-date (YTD) loss standing currently at -10.77 percent.

There was a weak performance in activity level with total volume and value traded declining by 0.64 percent and 19.06 percent to 207.24 million units and N1.77 billion respectively.

FBN Holding came tops as the most traded stock by volume while Guaranty Trust Bank posted the most traded stock by value at the close of trading.

The sectoral breakdown showed bearish sentiment characterising the sectors. Analysts at Lead Capital highlighted sell-offs in stocks of Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank, which they said placed the lender’s index (-2.76%) as the worst performer of the day.

The index of the 30 most capitalised stocks, NSE 30, slumped by 0.51 percent due to losses in the shares of both banks.

The insurance and industrial goods indices followed the loss streak respectively posting 0.24% and 0.08% declines.

There was however a clawback as the oil and gas index led the gainers, going up by 0.93 percent on the back of price surge in ARDOVA, ETERNA and OANDO.

The consumer goods index also edged up recording an appreciation of 0.33 percent, following renewed buying interest in UNILEVER.