Continuous Sell-offs Bury Nigerian Equities in Red Zone

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The free-fall at the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued on Tuesday with sell-offs majorly seen in the banking and oil and gas sectors.

The local bourse closed 0.43 percent lower yesterday with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns shrinking to 5.25 percent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 175.78 points to close at 40,249.29 points, while the market capitalisation declined by N63 billion to finish at N14.580 billion.

The Financial Services sector led the activity chart yesterday with 170.7 million shares sold for N1.8 billion, while the Services industry followed with 39.5 million equities exchanged for N78 million.

At the close of transactions, a total of 281.3 million shares were sold on Tuesday in 4,304 deals worth N4.1 billion compared with the 271.3 million equities traded at N2.3 billion.

This showed a 3.68 percent increase in the volume of shares traded yesterday and 77.68 percent in the value of equities sold by investors.

Business Post reports that Ikeja Hotels led the activity chart with 34.6 million shares worth N70.5 million exchanged by investors on Tuesday.

Fidson followed with 32.4 million equities traded at N180.2 million, and Zenith Bank, which sold 26.5 million shares valued at N740.9 million.

FBN Holdings exchanged 17.7 million shares valued at N189.7 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance sold 17.2 million shares worth N4.4 million.

On the price movement chart, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the losers’ table with N8.50k of its share value lost to close at N172.50k per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with N1 lost to finish at N244 per share, and Dangote Sugar fell by 70k to close at N18.25k per share.

Nigerian Breweries also went down by 70k to end at N123 per share, while Flour Mills declined by 65k to settle at N33.35k per share.

At the other end, Okomu Oil increased by N3.90k to close at N82.30k per share, while CCNN advanced by N1.20k to end at N25.20k per share.

NNFM grew by 30k to close at N6.85k per share, Access Bank rose by 20k to finish at N10.90k per share, and Ikeja Hotels garnered 18k to settle at N2.04k per share.