Bearish Trading Depresses Market by N72bn
By Uche Obike and Tunyosola Ayansiji
The consistent decline in the prices of equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday took a harsh toll on the market capitalisation of the NSE which dropped by N72 billion or 3.9 per cent, from N1.813 trillion to N1.741 trillion.
Also, all-share index of the NSE, a key market indicator suffered huge loss as it nose-dived by 3.9 per cent.
The market capitalisation had in the past two days dwindled by N121 billion.
Investment analysts explained that the heavy decline in the market value was caused by the substantial price losses by highly capitalised companies.
Analysts believe that the companies were being penalised for not rewarding the investors with good returns on their investments.
According to them, the performance of most of the quoted companies in the past one year was not good enough especially in the area of dividend payout and bonus issue.
A few of the analysts posited that the N25 billion new minimum capital base for banks had started to impact negatively on the share prices because of the panic measure adopted by some of the investors were now off-loading their holdings at any price available.
Top on the price gainers' chart included Total Nigeria Plc that lost 985 kobo or five per cent to close at N187.15 per share. In the same category was Conoil Plc which dropped five per cent of 665 kobo to close at N126.35 per cent, while Texaco Nigeria Plc dipped by 4.9 per cent of 821 kobo.
Other top price losers during the day's transactions included Guinness Nigeria Plc (712 kobo), Conoil Plc (665 kobo), Nigerian Bottling Company Plc (349 kobo), Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc (301 kobo apiece), Nigerian Breweries Plc (248 kobo), Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (180 kobo), 7Up Bottling company Plc (140 kobo), First Bank of Nigeria Plc (112 kobo), Flour Mills Nigeria Plc (93 kobo), Unilever Nigeria Plc (75 kobo), PZ Industries Plc (74 kobo), West African Portland Company Plc (65 kobo), United Bank for Africa Plc (50 kobo) and UAC Property Development Company Plc (42 kobo).
However, only five companies appreciated between two kobo and 10 kobo. Chartered Bank Plc and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc led on the price gainers' chart with 10 kobo each closing at N2.38 and N5.00 per share respectively. Others were John Holt Plc and Lion Bank Plc (three kobo apiece) and NIWICABLE Plc (two kobo).
Meanwhile, despite the bearish transactions pervading the market place, the volume of traded shares remained stable. At the end of yesterday's trading, the stock market recorded a total of 54.804 million ordinary shares valued at N611.447 million that were exchanged in 2,936 deals.
The banking subsector continued to lead on the activity chart as it recorded a total of 42.543 million ordinary shares worth N339.861 million made in 1,387 deals. It was followed by industrial/domestic products subsector which recorded a total of 3.480 million ordinary shares valued at N8.062 million exchanged in 67 deals.
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