By Nse Anthony-Uko
(Sundiata Finance) — The Nigerian stocks market maintained its negative momentum to close the final trading day of the week and for the month of August, yesterday.
In summary, the All Share Index (ASI) shed 124.51 absolute points, representing a loss of 0.35 per cent to close at 35,504.62 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation declined by N43 billion, to close at N12.237 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC, Julius Berger, Cadbury and SCOA.
Capital market analysts noted, “The market has experienced a four day consecutive weight shedding this week and this is not unconnected to losses in big cap. The equities market also portrays basically investors’ reaction towards profit taking as sallah break steps in amongst other reasons. As a result, we expect the market to experience an upturn in the month of September amidst mixed sentiment.”
However, market breadth was positive, with 27 gainers versus 20 losers. Continental Reinsurance led the gainers table by five per cent to close at N1.47 per share. NPF Microfinance Bank followed with a gain of 4.46 per cent each to close at N1.17, while Fidson appreciated by 4.38 per cent to close at N3.34 per share.
Jaiz Bank went up by 4.05 per cent to close at 77 kobo and Transcorp rose by four per cent to close at N1.30 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the laggards’ table by five per cent to close at N32.49 per share. SCOA and Cadbury trailed with a loss of 4.97 per cent, each to close at N3.25 and N11.47 per share, respectively.
Morison declined by 4.65 per cent to close at 82 kobo, while Stanbic IBTC shed by 4.33 per cent to close at N38.27 per share.
Also, total volume traded rose by 11.1 per cent to 266.51 million shares, valued at N4.04 billion, and exchanged in 2,263 deals. Transactions in the shares of Sovereign Trust Insurance topped the activity chart with 100 million shares valued at N50 million. FBN Holdings followed with 26.43 million shares worth N150.5 million, while Access Bank traded 23.14 million shares valued at N223.46 million.
UBA traded 20.55 million shares worth N187.28 million and Zenith Bank transacted 10.3 million shares valued at N235.68 million.
