Stocks lose N234bn in new trading week

The Nigerian stock market continued its search for a bullish trigger yesterday as investors dumped equities in search of safe haven.

Equities value at the end of yesterday trading slumped by N234 billion to close at N9.062 trillion.

A stockbroker, Mr. Aruna Kebira said downward trading on the bourse caused massive drop in high capitalized stocks.

According to him, investors are looking for stock to sell to maximize their loss in small capitalized stocks.

Most of high capitalized stocks have reasonable price and that is why investors selling them to make more money, don’t forget that Dangote Cement alone controls over 25 per cent of entire market and whatever that happens to it will have impact on the market too, he said.

However, the NSE All Share Index depreciated by 678.21 points or 2.51 per cent to close at 26,350.18 basis points, compared with the 0.87 per cent depreciation recorded previously.

Market breadth closed negative as Total Nigeria Plc led 6 gainers against 31 losers topped by Lafarge Africa Plc at the end of the trading which was an unimproved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Market turnover closed negative as volume declined by 45.80 per to close at 127.679 million worth N1.372 billion transacted in 2,474 deal. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, UBA Plc and FBN Holdings Plc, Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc and Access Bank were the most active to boost market turnover.

Top on gainers’ log was Total Nigeria Plc with a gain of N7.42 kobo to close at N155.92 kobo, followed by Ashaka Cement Plc with N1.20 kobo to close at N25.20 kobo, McNichols Plc with N0.05 kobo to close at N1.19 kobo per share, Wema Bank Plc with N0.03 kobo to close at N1.03 kobo per share and African Prudential.