Loses as NSE market capitalisation drops by N36bn

The free fall of equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday continued for the third consecutive day due to investors’ anticipated second quarters’ earnings reports.

The market capitalisation dropped further by N36 billion or 0.33 per cent to close at N11.133 trillion compared with N11.169 trillion achieved on Tuesday.

Also, the All-Share Index dipped 107.88 points or 0.33 per cent to close at 32, 302.32 against 32,410.20 posted on Tuesday.

Mr. Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the mixed performance to the second quarters’ earnings expected to be released in the market.

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He said that investors should not panic on the pullbacks being experienced in the market, especially if they had taken position based on strong numbers in stocks with future prospects.

Omordion said investors should invest wisely with technical tools to know the support and resistant level when to reposition or exit any position.

Flour Mills topped the losers’ chart for the day, dropping by N2.49 to close at N23.14 per share.

Unilever trailed with a loss of N1.84 to close at N35.03 and Julius Berger lost N1.69 to close at N32.14 per share.

Guinness declined by N1.54 to close at N63 and PZ Industries depreciated by N1.21 to close at N23.14 per share.

On the other hand, Nestle recorded the gain for the day leading the gainer’s pack by 50k to close at N901.50 per share.

Berger Paint followed with a gain of 31k to close at N7.17 and Nigerian Breweries gained 30k to close at N158.35 per share.

United Bank for Africa added 18k to close at N8.38, while FBN Holdings appreciated by 14k to close at N6.05 per share.

Niger Insurance was the active stock in volume terms, trading 62.90 million shares worth N31.45 million.

FBN Holdings followed with an exchange of 30.46 million shares valued at N183.72 million and Transcorp sold 30.24 million shares worth N38.75 million.

Zenith International Bank exchanged 28.50 million shares valued at N576.03 million, while UBA traded 23.98 million shares worth N197.74 million.

In all, a total of 311.38 million shares valued at N2.97 were exchanged by investors in 4,312 deals, indicating an increase of 51.02 per cent.

This was against a turnover of 206.18 million shares worth N1.70 billion transacted in 4,294 deals on Tuesday.