The Nigerian stock market’s year-to-date (YtD) returns moved further into the negative territory of minus 8.30percent on Wednesday August 15, 2018 as investors continued to offload equities. Specifically, sell pressure seen in highly capitalised stocks are pulling the market lower.
The equities market closed on a negative note, as Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.62percent to close at 35,069.34 points against 35,288.23 points seen on Tuesday August 14, 2018.
The value of listed stocks decreased by N80billion, from N12.883trillion recorded the preceding trading day to N12.803trillion on Wednesday.
The current performance of Lagos Bourse is largely driven by rising political risk, in addition to some underwhelming first-half (H1) 2018 earnings released at the Bourse.
At the close of trading Wednesday, only 12 companies recorded share price gains as against 29 that lost their day-open values.
Nestle Nigeria Plc led the basket of laggards after a record dip by N60 or 3.85percent, from Wednesday open price of N1, 560 to N1, 500. Also, Berger Paints Plc which lost 70kobo or 9.72percent made the list of top losers, after its share price declined from N7.2 to N6.5.
Zenith Bank Plc also declined by 50kobo or 2.13percent, from N23.5 to N23; Oando Plc lost 45kobo or 9percent, from N5 to N4.55; while Newrest Asl Nigeria Plc declined from N4.95 to N4.5, down by 45kobo or 9.09percent.
The outperformance of select handful of stocks failed to rescue the market from record loss.
Total Nigeria Plc recorded the biggest advance of N5 or 2.70percent, from N185 to N190; followed by FBN Holdings Plc which gained 30kobo or 3.14percent, from N9.55 to N9.85.
Forte Oil Plc increased from N23 to N23.15, representing an increase of 15kobo or 65percent.
May & Baker Nigeria Plc also gained 7kobo or 3.07percent from N2.28 to N2.35; while Linkage Assurance Plc gained 6kobo or 9.68percent, from 62kobo to 68kobo.
Actively traded stocks on the Bourse include UBA Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc, GTBank Plc, and Transcorp Plc.
In 4,044 deals, stock traders exchanged 209,540,872 units valued at N2.903billion.
