By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday closed in red as all-share index (ASI) dipped 0.44 percent to close at 28,730.42 points, while market capitalisation fell by N43.59 billion corresponding N9.86trillion.
“Today’s negative close extended the Month-to-Date loss to 2.93 percent and pared the Year-to-Date gain to 0.31 percent, Cordros daily market update said.
According to InvestmentOne report, sell pressure on the likes of Nigeria’s most capitalised quoted company, Dangote Cement Plc, oil marketer, Forte Oil Plc and Nigeria’s tier one lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc closing negatively by 49.61 points, 28.67 points and 17.63 points respectively; largely accounted for the session’s negative close and cancelling out gains in the share of Nigeria’s top tier conglomerate, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc by 16.57 points, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc by 3.7 points and FCMB Group 3.4 points.
In terms of activity, the Nigerian equities market also declined with eight (8) percent and 36 percent in volume and value turnover as investors exchanged over 190 million units of stocks valued at N2.34billion in 4,578 deals.
Transcorp emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.14 kobo per share, while lender, Skye Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.06 kobo per share to top the list of 25 decliners. “As such, the advance/decline ratio (-0.10x) closed negative,” the InvestmentOne update added.
The report says the Oil & Gas (-1.6%) tracker was the biggest loser while the Banking (-0.87%), Consumer Goods (-0.16%) and the Industrial Goods (-0.22%) indices each also ended the session in the red.
“In the immediate, we see a volatile market given lack of positive catalyst and our expectation of less-inspiring corporate scorecards in Q2. However, over the medium to longer term, we are positive given the recent traction in both fiscal and monetary policies. As such, we advise investors with a medium to longer term horizon to gradually build positions in quality names,” the Investment One update affirmed.
