Equities market drops by N13bn

By Kayode Ogunwale 

The equities segment of the Nigerian stock market maintained bearish trend as market capitalization dropped N13 billion.
The market capitalization which open the week at N8.791 trillion dropped to N8.778 trillion at the end of the trading, while All Share Index also shed 38.54 points or 0.15 per cent lower at 25,505.91 basis points.
The NSE All Share Index and all sector indices closed in red region save for NSE Industrial sector, which trended up with 0.01 per cent gain while NSE Alternative Securities Market (Asem) remained flat.
The general market outlook remains negative on active sell pressure as analysts at APT Securities and Fund Limited expect possible long position taking by value investors on fundamentally strong equities given their current low prices.
Volume of trades dropped from 165 million shares traded in the previous session to 112 million shares traded today, while value recorded N858 million as against N888 million, representing a 3.34 per cent decline from the previous trading level.
Transactions in the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, Skye Bank, Diamond Bank, FCMB and UBA topped the activity chart as most traded equities by volume.
The market breadth remains negative with 17 decliners against 13 advancers.
Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc led the losers chart with N4.99 kobo to close at N190.01 kobo per share, followed by Dangote Sugar Plc with N0.32 kobo loss to close at N6.16 kobo, International Breweries Plc, Stanbic IBTC and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) losses N0.30 kobo, N0.30 kobo and N0.20 kobo per share respectively to close the day at N19.50 kobo, N15.50 and N9.80 kobo in that order.
On the other hand, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc top the gainers table with N0.80 kobo to close at N17.00 kobo from N16.20 kobo. It was followed by Transcorp Hotel Plc with N0.26 kobo to close at N5.51 kobo and African Prudential Plc with a gain of N0.10 kobo to close at N2.65 kobo from N2.55 kobo per share. While Cutix Plc and Fidson Healthcare Plc gain of N0.09 kobo and N0.06 kobo per share.