By Omobayo Azeez
The benchmark index tracking rises and falls of share prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchnage (NSE) sustained its southward movement on Tuesday to close negative after depreciating by 0.14 per cent.
The index, popularly known as the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 30.32 points to close at 21,300.47 basis points from 21,330.79 points it opened the session and market capitalization, shrank by losing N16 billion to close at N11.101 trillion.
Consequently, the day’s loss worsened month-to-date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) negative returns on equities to -18.8 per cent and -20.7 per cent respectively.
Analysing by sectors, losses in the Banking index at -1.1 per cent and Industrial Goods’ at -0.1 per cent indices masked the 1.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent gains recorded in the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices respectively, while the Oil and Gas index closed flat.
According to statistics from the NSE, market breadth closed negative with emergence of 11 losing stocks against nine counterparts while 11 others closed on unchanged prices. Similarly, activity level as well as market turnover for the session dips by 9.62 per cent and 10.88 per cent respectively.
The gainers were led by Unilever, gaining N0.5o to close at N11. Flourmill followed with N0.45 gain to close at N21.25 per share and Glaxosmith added N0.40 to its share price to close at N4.40 per share.
Similarly, MayBaker appreciated in price by N0.19 to close the session at N2.14 per share while NEM advanced by N0.18 to end the session at N2.07 per share.
On the other hand, Zenith Bank dipped by N0.25 in price to close at N11.70 per share as the leader of the other declining stocks. UACN and GUARANTY followed suit as each shed N0.20 to close at N7.20 and N17.70 per share respectively.
Other decliners recorded for the day include WAPCO Plc and Access Bank, losing N0.10 each to close at N9.20 and N5.95 per share respectively.
The activity level in the market was largely driven by eight banking stocks, namely Sterling Bank, Zenith Bank, GUARANTY, United Bank for Africa, FCMB, FBNH, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank.
The crew was led by Sterling Bank, trading 303.456 million shares worth N348.745 million; Zenith Bank Plc with traded 29.650 million shares at N350.397 million and GUARANTY, which traded 16.871 million shares valued at 301.157 million shares.
The trio also topped the chart in terms of turnover with Zenith Bank coming first, followed by Sterling Bank and GUARNATY.
The day closed with a total of 422.01 million shares valued at N1.72 billion in 3,448 trades in contrast with 466.91 million shares worth N1.93 billion that exchanged hands in 3,659 transactions in the previous session.
