Within just four days of trading on the Nigerian bourse, the bear reign at the Customs Street has depleted the value of equity investors’ portfolio by about N280billion.
The stock market opened this week with equities market capitalisation at N10.978 trillion but dropped to N10.698 trillion at the close of trading yesterday. Likewise, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) which had opened this week at 34,301.37 points, dropped to 33,466.76 points.
This poor performance at the Nigerian stock market came on the heels of equity dealers exchanging 375,907,840 shares valued at N4.791billion in 6,673 deals. This volume of transaction was boosted by deals in the shares of Diamond Bank plc, Africa Prudential Registrars, FBN Holdings plc, Access Bank plc, and United Bank for Africa plc.
Only yesterday, price decline recorded in blue-chip stocks contributed immensely to the N76billion loss in market cap of the Nigerian bourse, a development market watchers linked to panic selling by investors in blue-chips.
Investors in Nigerian Breweries plc were most affected in this dismal outing, after their stock price lost N3.95, from N168 to N164.05. This was followed by Guinness Nigerian plc which declined by N2, from N264 to N262. Other top losers include Unilever plc which dipped by N1.96, from N54 to N52.04. UACN plc also declined by N1.08, from N56.08 to N55; while Dangote Cement plc lost N0.80, from N157.02 to N156.22.
On the gainers, the stocks of Julius Berger Nigeria plc led with a gain of N3.49, after it rose from N51 to N54.49; followed by Ashaka Cement plc which gained N1.47, from N24.50 to N25.97.
Other gainers include Zenith Bank plc which garnered N0.80, after its stock price rose from N21 to N21.80; followed by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) which rose from N14.33 to N14.90, adding N0.57; while NAHCO added N0.50, from initial price of N5.08 and closed yesterday at N5.58.
IHEANYI NWACHUKWU
