The Nigerian Stock Exchange (www.nse.com.ng) extends its losing streaks amid sell-offs in the banking stocks on Wednesday.
The bearish grip was sustained on the back of price depreciation on FCMB and other stocks.
The All share index weakened, lost 5.74 absolute points to close at 26, 938.58 as against 26, 944.32 on Tuesday.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date losses worsened to -0.24% and -14.29% respectively.
NSE market capitalisation, which opened at N13.005 trillion, lost N3 billion to close at N13.002 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks.
These include Sterling Bank; United Bank for Africa (UBA); Zenith Bank; Oando and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company.
Analysts at Afrinvest stated despite strong investors’ sentiment due to renewed interest in the local bourse, it expects profit taking activities to persist.
Sterling Bank led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping by 6.34% to close at N1.92 per share.
Chams followed with a decline of 5.71% to close at 33k, while FCMB Group lost 3.23 per share to close at N1.80 per share.
NAHCO dipped 2.80% to close at N2.43 per share.
Conversely, Japaul Oil and Maritime Services led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, appreciating by 10% to close at 22k per share.
May & Baker followed with a gain of 9.74% to close at N2.14, while NEM Insurance rose by 5.26 % to close at N2 per share.
Courteville Business Solutions grew by 3.85% to close at 27k, while Cutix appreciated by 3.50 % to close at N1.48 per share.
Also, the total volume of trades dipped by 40.27 % as investors bought and sold 112.89 million valued at N1.08 billion and exchanged in 3,041 deals.
This was in contrast with a total of 189.01 million shares worth N283 billion achieved in 3,314 deals on Tuesday.
Zenith Bank was the most traded stock by volume and value at 15.86 million units valued at N296.86 million.
FCMB Group followed with 15.17 million shares worth N26.99 million, while UBA traded 12.96 million shares valued at N90.66 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 7.45 million shares worth N14.98 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank transacted 6.09 million shares valued at N183.97 million.
Across sector, performance was bullish as 3 out of 6 indices under Afrinvest coverage advanced while AFR-ICT closed flat.
Investors’ sentiment as measured by market breadth strengthened to 1.2x from 0.7x recorded in the previous trading as 16 stocks advanced against 13 decliners.
Afrinvest said despite strong investors sentiment due to renewed interest in the local bourse, it expects profit taking activities to persists follow four consecutive weeks of price appreciation.
