By Nse Anthony-Uko
For the second trading session, Nigerian equities, on Tuesday traded mostly on the negative side, closing with a net capital loss of N138 billion. In summary, the All Share Index (ASI) shed 384.42 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.87 per cent to close at 43,877.30 points.
Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N138 billion, to close at N15.746 trillion. The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Mobil, Unilever Nigeria, Flourmill, Zenith Bank and Julius Berger.
Analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited said, “given the equities market negative stance for the first two trading sessions, the market is being set up for corrections in subsequent sessions. Therefore, there is no cause for alarm as we expect the today trading session to be dominated by bargain hunting.”
Similarly, market breadth closed negative with 18 gainers against 48 losers. Prestige Assurance led the gainers table by 7.69 per cent to close at 56 kobo per share. Caverton followed with a gain of 6.92 per cent to close at N2.78, while Africa Insurance appreciated by five per cent to close at 42 kobo per share.
Also, Transnational Express went up by 4.94 per cent to close at 85 kobo and Dangote Sugar rose by 4.76 per cent to close at N22 per share.
On the other hand, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance led the laggards’ table by 9.09 per cent, to close at 40 kobo per share. Skye Bank trailed with a loss of 8.89 per cent to close at N1.23, while Transcorp declined by 6.84 per cent to close at N2.18 per share. FBN Holdings shed 5.15 per cent to close at N12.90, while AG Leventis went down by 4.92 per cent, to close at 58 kobo per share.
However, activity level improved as volume and value traded surged 68.4 per cent and 77.48 per cent to 717.15 million units of share and N4.91 billion respectively. Transactions in the shares of Lasaco Insurance topped the activity chart with 182.77 million shares valued at N59 million.
FCMB Groups followed with 90.49 million shares worth N258.56 million, while Skye Bank traded 80 million shares valued at N101.96 million. Transcorp traded 66.35 million shares worth N144.94 million and FBN Holdings transacted 39.72 million shares valued at N513.29 million.