Sell-off persists as stock market plunges further by N132 billion

The dominance of the bears has continued unabated on the equity sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as more blue-chip stocks joined the league of losers yesterday, resulting to a further slide in market capitalisation by N132 billion.

At the close of transactions, 30 stocks depreciated in price while 10 constituted the gainers’ chart.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 253.13 absolute points, representing a loss of 0.63 per cent to close at 40,212.19 points, resulting to Year-to-Date (YTD) loss of 0.15 per cent while the overall market capitalisation value lost N132 billion to close at N21.037 trillion.

The downturn was buoyed by value depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; University Press, Chams, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust, Multiverse Mining and Exploration and Japaul Gold and Ventures.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “We expect the market to close the week on a negative note due to sustained losses.”
R.T.Briscoe Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at 22 kobo, per share. Cornerstone Insurance followed with a gain 8.47 per cent to close at 64 kobo while Royal Exchange went up by eight per cent to close at 27 kobo.

Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) rose by 6.51 per cent to close at N2.29 while Niger Insurance gained 4.55 per cent to close at 23 kobo.

On the other hand, University Press led the losers’ chart by 9.09 per cent to close at N1.20, per share. Chams followed with a decline of 8.33 per cent to close at 22 kobo, while UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust shed 7.76 per cent to close at N5.35 kobo.

Multiverse Mining and Exploration lost 7.69 per cent to close at 24 kobo while Japaul Gold and Ventures shed 5.56 per cent to close at 68 kobo.

However, the total volume of trades advanced by 74.6 per cent to 426.270 million units, valued at N4.750 billion and exchanged in 4,972 deals.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 129.803 million shares valued at N949.312 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 37.737 million shares worth N912.014 million. Dangote Sugar Refinery traded 37.128 million shares valued at N688.391 million. Guaranty Trust Bank traded 35.428 million shares valued at N1.079 billion while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) transacted 28.854 million shares worth N26.613 million.