Investors continued to trade cautiously on the stock market, as yesterday’s market activities where volume and value of trade declined significantly.
The NSE ASI depreciated by 25.72 points, 0.77 per cent, to close at 34,044.65 from 34,310.37 on Thursday while market capitalisation went down by N91 billion from N11.659 trillion to close at N11.568 trillion.
The contraction led to an expansion of the year-to-date loss to 1.77 per cent.
A review of sectorial indices shows that only one of the five indices appreciated. The Industrial Goods index was the sole gainer with a minimal increase of 0.01 per cent. On the contrary, the Oil/Gas and Banking indices recorded 1.48 per cent and 1.39 per cent declines respectively while the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices followed with 1.20 per cent and 0.89 per cent contractions accordingly.
Market breadth was negative as 21 gainers and 35 laggards were recorded. Total Nigeria Plc topped losers’ chart by N13 to close at N161. Forte Oil trailed with a loss of N8 to close at N168 while Nigerian Breweries dropped by N3.10 to close at N147. Other companies that recorded price depreciation were Floor Mills Nigeria and Presco which fell by N1.69 and N1.20 respectively to close at N34.51 and N34.
On the other hand, Seplat led gainers table, by N7 to close at N345. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N1 to close at N164, while PZ Industries increased by 82 kobo to close at N30.00
UACN appreciated by 30 kobo to close at N41.50 while Mobil gained 20 kobo to close at N147.
Volume traded decreased by 52.10 per cent to 340.71million shares, valued at N5.50 billion and traded in 4,184 deals.
Capital market analysts, said “We expect cautious trading to continue in tomorrow’s session.”
However, they are optimistic that the market would thrive on positive changes in economic and business fundamentals.
Source : Leadership