By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian equities on Wednesday hit three-year low, dips 1.9 percent as oil prices dropped to its lowest in six (6) years.
At the close of today’s trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), all-share index (ASI) closed at 27,004.50 basis points, while market capitalisation decreased by N181.72 billion to N9.28 trillion
With today’s loss, the Nigerian bourse swung deeper into negative territory depressing the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) performance to a 1.39 percent loss and further extending the Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) loss to 22.08 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.
The report says four (4) of the five (5) sector indices recorded declines, it reported the Industrial sector with a drop of 2.59 percent was depressed by heavy sell-offs in the shares of cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc losing 5.00 percent, while the Banking index followed suit declining 1.06 percent on the losses recorded in the shares of Nigeria’s banking heavy weights, Zenith Bank Plc , Guaranty Bank Plc and Skye Bank Plc by 2.44 percent, 1.96 percent and 4.76 percent respectively.
Similarly, the Cordros update reported that the Consumer Goods and Insurance sectors went down 0.59 percent and 0.30 percent after losses posted in the shares of beverage maker, Cadbury Nigeria Plc dropping 4.98 percent; soap and detergent producer, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc shedding 1.85 percent; while on the insurance part, Continental Insurance Plc fell by 4.00 percent to close the day.
On the contrary, today’s session saw the Oil & Gas index emerge the sole gainer with a gain of 0.92 percent on the performance of share appreciations in Seplat Petroleum development Company Plc and Eterna Plc by 5.00 percent and 4.61 percent respectively.
At the close of trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained negative with 15 gainers and 24 losers.
First listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat emerged top gainer with a gain of 10.35 kobo per share; while mid-tier lender Unity Bank Plc topped the losers table with a loss of 0.06 kobo per share to close the session.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded decreased by 50.36 percent to stand at 240.80 million shares valued at N2.41 billion in 3,061 total deals.
“We anticipate yet another losing session tomorrow given the lack of positive catalysts,” the Cordros update affirmed.
