Trading maintains falling share prices trend

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a negative trend for the second consecutive day with the market indicators appreciating marginally by 0.08 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the All-Share Index dropped by 28.09 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 36,641.52 compared to 36,669.61 on Tuesday.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.622 trillion lost N10 billion or 0.08 per cent to close at N12.612 trillion.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the development to profit taking as investors await more third quarter earnings of quoted companies.

Omordion said that the market failed to react to the September inflation figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) due to the profit taking.

Total Nigeria recorded the highest loss for the day dropping by N7.59 to close at N245.41 per share.

Flour Mills trailed with a loss of 80k to close at N29.20 and NASCON dipped 65k to close at N13.20 per share.

Access Bank depreciated by 21k to close at N9.50, while NAHCO declined by 20k to close at N3.20 per share.

On the other hand, GlaxosmithKline led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N1.10 to close at N23.15 per share.

Presco followed with a gain of 50k to close at N68, while Nigerian Breweries gained 48k to close at N162.50 per share.

Ecobank Transnational advanced by 38k to close at N17.59, while Guinness Nigeria shed 25k to close at N101 per share.

A breakdown of the activity chart showed that Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock for the day, trading 37.06 million shares worth N1.55 billion.

Sterling Bank followed with an exchange of 26.89 million shares valued at N28.89 million and Access Bank traded 20.54 million shares worth N198.46 million.

Fidelity Bank exchanged 19.74 million shares worth N29.22 million, while Zenith International Bank sold 13.61 million shares valued at N358.96 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded dropped marginally by 6.25 per cent with a total of 198.63 million shares worth N2.94 billion transacted by investors in 3,542 deals.

NAN reports that this was in contrast with 211.87 million shares valued at N4.74 billion traded in 3,890 deals on Tuesday.