By Nse Anthony-Uko
The Nigerian stocks market on Wednesday shed 0.34 per cent and extended downtrend to the second day in a row.
In summary, the All Share Index (ASI) shed 123.78 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.34 per cent to close at 36,652.82 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N43 billion, to close at N12.617 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC, UBA, Vitafoam and UPL.
Analysts at Cordros Capital said “Notwithstanding yesterday’s loss, we think the market remains relatively strong, supported by broadly bullish outlook for the economy and corporate earnings in third quarter, 2017.”
Market breadth was flat, with 19 gainers and 19 losers. Mansard Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at N2.31 per share. CCNN followed with a gain of 9.23 per cent to close at N10.18, while Linkage Assurance appreciated by 6.67 per cent, to close at 80 kobo per share.
Nahco went up by 4.92 percent, to close at N3.41, while Red Star Express gained 4.88 per cent to close at N5.16, per share.
On the other hand, Vitafoam led the losers’ chart by five per cent, to close at N2.66 per share. Law Union Insurance followed with a decline of 4.71 per cent to close at 81 kobo, while UPL depreciated by 4.67 per cent to close at N2.45 per share.
Morison declined by 4.55 percent, to close at 66 kobo and Skye Bank declined by 3.85 per cent to close at 50 kobo per share.
Total volume traded decreased by 4.76 per cent to 336.39 million units, valued at N1.83 billion and exchanged in 3,689 deals..Transactions in the shares of Diamond Bank topped the activity chart with 230.56 million shares valued at N230.24 million. Skye bank followed with 13..44 million shares worth N6.77 million, while Zenith Bank traded 10.5 million shares valued at N265.77 million.
Fidelity Bank traded 9.67 million shares valued at N13.4 million, while FBN Holdings sold 9.14 million shares worth N55.52 million.