The Nigerian bourse extended Monday’s bearish performance into Tuesday’s session, posting a loss of about N164billion due to the absence of significant upward movement in major mid/large cap stocks.
Equities that led the laggard’s league of 49 against 8 advancers are Nigerian Breweries, Lafarge Africa, Ardova, BOC Gas, and Zenith Bank.
For the second time this week, the market was largely dominated by the bears, as investors’ continued to take advantage of gains recorded in the preceding week.
As at 2:30 pm trade closing time, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased by 0.74percent from 42, 357.90 points recorded the preceding trading day to 42,043.79 points, while the value of listed equities decreased from N22.157trillion to N21.993trillion.
The market’s year-to-date (ytd) positive return printed lower at +4.40percent amid 0.87percent decline seen this week. In 7,110 deals, investors exchanged 556,023,267 units valued at N4.785billion. Union Bank, Transcorp, FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank, and UBA were actively traded stocks.
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Nigerian Breweries Plc dipped most by N2 or 3.17percent, from N63 to N61; followed by Lafarge Africa which dipped from N30 to N28, losing N2 or 6.67percent, while Ardova Plc share price dropped from N19.05 to N17.15, down by N1.9 or 9.97percent.
BOC Gas was also among the top laggards on the Nigerian Bourse after its share price moved from N15.12 to N13.61, decreasing by N1.51 or 9.99percent; followed by that of Zenith Bank which decreased by 85kobo or 3.13percent, from N27.15 to N26.3.
With all sectors closing the session in the red, coupled with the negative market breadth, Lagos-based Vetiva analysts expect the bearish tone to filter into Wednesday’s trading session. Though, they noted that given the drop in prices of major bellwether stocks in the last two sessions, they expect some savvy investors to start taking position in attractive counters with low prices.
