Stock market sheds N10bn as sell pressure persists

…Beta Glass, Stanbic IBTC, Zenith top losers table

The value of equities listed on the Ni- gerian Stock Exchange de- clined by N10billion after yesterday’s trading as sell pressure persisted on the Nigerian bourse.

The performance indicators of Nigerian equities market closed negative, further justify- ing analysts’ view of sus- tained weak sentiments at the equities market this week.

The NSE All Share In- dex (ASI) declined by 29.83points or 0.09% from 33,492.17 points to close at 33,462.34 points yesterday.

The equities market capi- talisation declined from N11.432trillion to N 11.422trillion.

In 3,863 deals, eq- uity dealers exchanged 590,790,917 units val- ued at N4.125bn. United Bank for Africa plc and GTBank plc were among actively traded stocks on the Nigerian bourse.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after a re- port of falling U.S in- ventories and signs that U.S oil production growth was leveling off after several years of very sharp increases.

Brent crude prices rose $1.48 to a two- week high of $66.36 a barrel and was trad- ing around $66.08, up $1.20 cents, by 6.30 a.m. EDT. U.S. light crude was up $1.36 at $61.50. U.S. crude stocks fell 6.7 million barrels to 473.1 million last week, com- pared with analysts’ expectations for a 1.72 million barrel drop.

At the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Beta Glass Company plc led the los- ers table after its share price dropped from N42 to N39.9, down by N2.1; followed by the Stanbic IBTC Holdings plc which lost N1, from a high of N28 to N27.

Zenith Bank plc also lost N0.64, from N19.84 to N19.2; GTBank plc lost N0.44, from N26.94 to N26.5; while Lafarge Af- rica plc dipped by N0.4, from N99.5 to N99.1.

On the gainers table, Forte Oil plc led after its share price rose by N14.63, from a low of N158.6 to N173.23; while PZ Cussons Nigeria plc share price rose from N30.66 to N32.19, adding N1.53.

Also on the top gain- ers list include Nestle Nigeria plc which added N1, from N855 to N856; Nigerian Breweries plc gained N0.9, from N147 to N147.9; GlaxoSmith- Kline Consumer Nigeria plc added N0.88, after its share price rose from N44.11 to N44.99.

IHEANYI NWACHUKWU