Michael Eboh & David Igbanoi
6 January 2009
Lagos — THE bearish trend in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued yesterday, as the total value of shares dipped by N119.68 billion. The bears had staged a comeback on the first day of trading in 2009, after nine days of uninterrupted bull runs.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which represented the total value of companies listed on the NSE, dropped by 1.73 per cent, from N6.936 trillion at which it opened to close at N6.817 trillion. Another indicator, the All-share index, also dropped by 1.73 per cent or 541.01 basis points to close at 30,816.23 points from 31,357.24 points.
The decline in the market value was as a result of profit-taking activities by investors, cashing in on the marginal increase in the prices of some of the shares in the nine days uninterrupted bullish run to make gains. This led to heavy losses on the share prices of majority of the listed equities.
Total Nigeria Plc recorded the highest share price loss, dropping by N10.18 to close at N193.51 per share from N203.69 per share at which it opened, Nestle Nigeria Plc followed with a loss of N9.57 to close at N181.57 per share and Guinness Nigeria Plc dipped by N4.90 to close at N93.11 per share.
Other share price losers include: Oando Plc N3.90, Nigerian Breweries Plc N1.20, Cadbury Nigeria Plc N1.13, Zenith Bank Plc N0.87, Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Plc N0.69, Intercontinental Bank Plc N0.67, Costain (West Africa) Plc N0.57 among others.
On the contrary, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc recorded the highest share price gain, rising by N1.50 to close at N33.00 per share from N31.50 per share, Benue Cement Company Plc followed with a gain of N0.94 to close at N19.84 per share and Union Bank Nigeria Plc garnered N0.77 to close at N16.27 per share.
Other share price gainers include: UAC Nigeria Plc N0.66, Dangote Flour Mills Plc N0.61, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc N0.59, Unilever Nigeria Plc N0.54, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc N0.50, Ashaka Cement Plc N0.50, May & Baker Nigeria Plc N0.30 among others.
However, equity trading appreciated by 2.96 per cent as a turnover of 197.63 million shares valued at N1.25 billion in 6,424 deals in contrast to Friday's turnover of 191.94 million shares valued at N1.3 billion in 4,308 deals.
The Banking sub-sector dominated the other sub-sectors, accounting for 31.3 per cent of the market turnover with 61.83 million shares valued at N638.21 million in 3,153 deals. Shares of Access Bank Plc were the most sought after by investors, trading 9.23 million shares valued at N65.27 million in 349 deals, followed by Oceanic Bank International Plc with a turnover of 8.36 million shares valued at N97.23 million in 263 deals and United Bank for Africa Plc recorded 6.37 million shares valued at N85.6 million in 402 deals.
The Insurance sub-sector followed on the sectorial analysis, accounting for 26.96 per cent of the market turnover with 53.28 million shares valued at N88.95 million in 891 deals. International Energy Insurance Plc recorded the highest transaction in the sub-sector, trading 14.4 million shares valued at N31.41 million in 37 deals, followed by Linkage Assurance Plc with the exchange of 9.28 million shares valued at N6.12 million in 48 deals and Lasaco Assurance Plc recorded 4.78 million shares valued at N8.8 million in 76 deals.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
