Seplat, Mobil others top stock market N76 billion loss

Price losses yesterday continued to outweigh gains on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as most blue-chip companies, especially Seplat and Mobil constituted the losers’ chart, causing market capitalisation to plunge further by N76 billion.

At the close of transactions yesterday, 31 stocks depreciated in price, led by Seplat with N35.00 kobo to close at N665.10 per share while Mobil followed with N7.50 kobo to close at N177.00 per share.

Total lost N3.70 kobo to close at N240.00 per share. International Breweries shed N2.85 kobo to close at N54.15 per share. Guinness depreciated by N2.00 kobo to close at N103.00 per share.

21 stocks appreciated in price as Nestle topped the gainers chart with N19.00 kobo to close at N1339 per share while GlaxoSmithKline followed with N2.85 kobo to close at N30.90 per share.

FO garnered N1.90 kobo to close at N41.90 per share. MRS gained N1.35 kobo to close at N28.35 per share. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria added 0.90 kobo to close at N19.65 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation of listed equities dropped by N76 from N14.975 trillion recorded on Monday to N14.899 trillion. Similarly, the All-share index dipped by 211.06 points 0.5 per cent to 41,243.24 from 41,454.30 achieved on Monday.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited believed that the stock market would rebound soon.

“Following another negative close today and weaker investor sentiment, we believe market performance in the near term would rebound. Our view is further buttressed by the fact that the Relative Strength Index (RSI), a technical indicator which measures market momentum, is currently at 33.8 which is close to the oversold region.”