Unrelenting bears push Nigeria’s bourse further into negative zone

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) on Tuesday continued its loitering in the negative territory as insistent Bears pushed the market to another negative close.

The record -0.13 percent decline on Tuesday fuelled the month’s dip now at -2.13 percent thereby moderating the record year-to-date (YtD) positive return to 3.08 percent.

Amid scarcity of positive news capable of reversing the bearish trend, the stock market may close further in red on Wednesday.

At the close of trading session, the NSE ASI moved from 41,564.31 points to 41,510.16 points while market capitalisation, a measure of value of listed stocks on the domestic bourse decreased by N29billion, from N21.744 trillion to N21.715 trillion.

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Stocks that caused the negative close are Northern Nigeria Flour Mills, which led the laggards after moving from N8.65 to N7.79, down by 86 kobo or 9.94 percent, followed by NEM Insurance which decreased from N2.5 to N2.27, losing 23 kobo or 9.20 percent.

Also, Niger Insurance made the top losers league after its stock price decreased from 22 kobo to 20 kobo, losing 2 kobo or 9.09 percent, followed by Japaul Gold which decreased from 79 kobo to 72 kobo, losing 7 kobo or 8.86 percent.

In 4,969 deals, investors exchanged 305,927,696 units valued at N3.951 billion. FBN Holdings, Guinness, RT Briscoe, Zenith Bank and Sterling Bank were top traded counters on Tuesday.