By Udeme Ekwere

Tuesday, 23 Nov 2010

The bearish trend of activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange entered into the fifth consecutive day on Monday with indicators closing lower.

This, experts said, was as a result of major losses recorded by blue chips on Monday.

There was increased profit taking in the banking sub-sector, especially on the stocks of rescued banks, with BankPHB being the worst hit.

According to experts, investors remained cautious in buying activities, causing the low bargain position in the market.

Selling activities cut across most of the sectors while slight buying tendency was witnessed in the foreign listings, road transportation, banking, and the hotel and tourism sub-sectors.

Guinness Nigeria Plc led 37 other companies on the price losers‘ chart, shedding 3.6 per cent or N6.80 to close at N182 per share.

Cadbury Nigeria Plc followed on the chart, with a loss by 4.8 per cent or N1.38 to close at N27.62 per share.

Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Vitafoam Plc also lost one per cent and five per cent to close at N50 and N6.47 per share respectively.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc, on the other hand, led the price gainers. It added 65 kobo or 4.2 per cent to close at N16 per share.

Lafarge WAPCO Plc gained 1.2 per cent or 50 kobo to close at N41 per share.

University Press Plc and Dangote Flour Mills Plc gained five per cent and 1.6 per cent to close at N6.77 and N16.35 per share respectively.

Despite the fact that other indices lost in volume, the banking index rose marginally, by 0.1 per cent or 0.47 basis points, from 389.97 to 390.44 points.

This was as a result of large activities in the sub-sector, as investors staked N1.247bn on 182.802 million shares, in 2,931 deals, thus accounting for 71 per cent of total volume traded.

Activities in the sub-sector was driven by trading in the shares of Bank PHB and First Bank of Nigeria Plc, which accounted for 34 per cent of the sub-sector‘s volume.

In all, 259.247 million shares, worth N2.283bn were exchanged by investors, in 5,233 transactions.

Source: Punch