Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Further losses by blue chip stocks depreciate indices on the Exchange

By Moses Ebosele and Femi Adekoya
22 December 2009   |   10:00 pm
Continued share price depreciations suffered by many blue chip stocks, yesterday, further depressed the corporate performance indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by 0.8 per cent, thus strengthening the hold of the bears on the equities sector.

At the close of transactions yesterday, the All-share index closed lower at 20,438.93 points, down from 20,601.99 points on Monday, while market capitalisation dropped by N39 billion from N4.93 trillion to N4.89 trillion.

 

In volume terms, a total of 514.5 million shares worth N4.64 billion changed hands yesterday, compared to 233.9 million shares valued at N1.21 billion exchanged the previous day.

On the day’s price movement chart, Guinness Nigeria Plc led 37 other companies to suffer price depreciation, losing 245 kobo to close at N127.50 per share, followed by Nigerian Breweries Plc with 203 kobo to close at N50.00 per share, while Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc lost 180 kobo to close at N36.20 per share.

Similarly, Lafarge Wapco Plc, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, UAC Nigeria Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc, all shed 145 kobo, 109 kobo, 56 kobo, 50 kobo, 50 kobo, and 38 kobo each, to close at N27.55, N25.90, N12.41, N239.50, N36.50 and N10.62 respectively.

On the other hand, Chevron Oil Nigeria Plc topped the day’s gainers’ chart with a gain of 332 kobo to close at N69.79 per share, followed by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc with 61 kobo to close at N15.65 per share, while Nigerian Aviation Handling company Plc added 33 kobo to close at N6.99 per share.

Furthermore, Presco Plc, Ashaka Cement Company Plc, Prestige Assurance Company Plc, Costain West Africa Plc and C&I Leasing Plc, all added 26 kobo, 20 kobo, 20 kobo, 18 kobo and 12 kobo each to close at N5.53, N11.80, N4.29, N3.81 and N2.67 respectively.

A review of activities in the equities sector showed that the volume of activities in the sector was buoyed by 298.4 million shares of banks’ stocks worth N2.57 billion, followed by the insurance sub-sector with 131 million shares valued at N187.7 million, while the construction sub-sector ranked third with 19.2 million shares worth N486.4 million.

Further analysis of activities in the sub-sectors showed that the volume of the banking sub-sector was boosted by 81.9 million shares of United Bank for Africa Plc worth N876.6 million, followed by Guaranty Trust Bank with 44.1 million shares valued at N664.4 million, while Diamond Bank Plc traded 33.8 million shares worth N242.9 million.

For the insurance sub-sector, the volume was energised by 77.4 million shares of Continental Reinsurance Plc, worth N97.2 million and Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc’s 35.4 million shares, valued at N74.3 million, while Julius Berger Nigeria Plc’s 18.7 million shares worth N485.4 million enhanced the construction sub-sector’s volume.

0 Comments