Nigeria’s listed stocks shed N6bn

Nigeria’s equities market closed slightly in the red zone on Thursday, November 5 as some investors chose to take profit from the market which witnessed over N950billion gain last week.

This record red close comes amid persistent low yield environment in the fixed income (FI) market and most analysts’ expectation that the equities market will continue to enjoy positive patronage in the short term.

Flour Mills led the league of laggards after its share price moved from N28.4 to N27.6, down by 80kobo or 2.82 percent. International Breweries followed after moving from N6.9 to N6.5, down by 40kobo or 5.80percent, while Fidson Healthcare dipped from N4.4 to N4.1, losing 30kobo or 6.82percent.

Though, analysts say the rising cases of the Coronavirus pandemic coupled with the possibility of another lockdown will continue to pose a threat to the market’s upward trend.

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At the close of remote trading session, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) decreased slightly by 0.01percent to 30,738.92 points, from the preceding day high of 30,741.88 points, while the market capitalisation dropped from N16.068billion to N16.062trillion.

The market’s year-to-date (YTD) positive return decreased to +14.52percent. This week alone, the market has increased by 0.68 percent.

FBN Holdings, BUA Cement, Access Bank, Transcorp and Zenith Bank were actively traded stocks on Thursday. In 4,319 deals, investors exchanged 430,121,026 units valued at N6.619billion.