The Nigerian stock market has finally entered the bear zone after yesterday’s recorded negative Year-to-Date (YtD) return of 13 percent.
The stock market, which has been at the mercy of continuing sell-off by foreign and local investors, declined by 2.14 percent as evidenced in the decline of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) and the market capitalisation.
The NSE All Share Index which opened yesterday at 36,744.46 points closed at 35,958.38 points at the close of deals; while market capitalisation declined by N260bn to close at N11.910trn against preceding level of N12.170trn.
The stock market was further pounded by losses recorded by large cap stocks like Nestle Nigeria plc, Lafarge Africa plc, Nigerian Breweries plc, 7-Up Bottling Company plc, and Total Nigeria plc.
Nestle Nigeria plc lost N49, after its share price dropped from N980 to N931; 7-Up Bottling Company plc dropped from N155 to N141, after its share price dropped by N14; Lafarge Africa plc also lost N9.67, from N99.28 to N89.61; Nigerian Breweries plc declined from N155.94 to N151, losing N4.94; while Total Nigeria plc declined from N157.71 to N155, after losing N2.71.
On gainers table, the share price of Diamond Bank plc rose from a low of N5.6 to N5.8, adding N0.2; followed by Sterling Bank plc which rallied from N2.3 to N2.41, after adding N0.11.
The share price of Mansard Insurance plc also rose from N3 to N3.1, adding N0.1; May & Baker Nigeria plc rose from N1.64 to N1.72, adding N0.08; while the shares of newly listed company Omoluabi Savings & Loans rose from N0.55 to N0.57, after adding N0.02.
Volume of equities traded decreased by 46.83 percent from 752.771m to 400.229m, while the total value of stock traded decreased by 3.92 percent from N4.183bn to N4.019bn in 4,374 deals.
Source : BusinessDay
