Sell pressure on oil and gas and industrial stocks accounted most for the fall by N44 billion in the market value of the equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Friday as the market regressed to the negative territory after recording only one day of gain this week on Thursday.
The Oil and Gas Index, by reason of the price slump in the shares of Seplat, and the Industrial Index, by reason of the same development in the shares of BUA Cement and WAPCO, emerged the day’s worst performing sectorial indices, dropping to 182.20 and 1,106.55 basis points respectively.
However, market breadth was positive with 17 gainers emerging against 13 losers.
The All Share Index (ASI) slid by 0.34% to 24,427.73 basis points and market capitalisation contracted to N12.743 trillion at the end of trade.
Year to date, the index is down by 8.99%.
TOP 5 GAINERS
Custodian led the flock of gainers, appreciating by 10% to close at N5.50. Julius Berger added 10% to end today’s trade at N17.05. Cutix went up by 10% to N1.76. Honeywell rose to N1.04, notching up 9.47% in the process. NAHCO completed the top 5, climbing by 8.37% to N2.20.
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TOP 5 LOSERS
Seplat was the worst performing stock, declining by 10% to close at N347.40. Learn Africa fell to N1.01, losing 4.72%. Unilever dipped to N12.25, recording 4.67% depreciation. Transcorp shed 4.62% to close at N0.62. Lasaco closed at N0.24, going down by 4%.
TOP 5 TRADES
174.199 million shares estimated at N2.385 billion were traded in 3,723 deals.
Zenith was the most active stock with 34.573 million units of its stocks worth N537.548 million traded in 523 deals. 28.129 million units of FBN Holdings shares priced at N140.124 million exchanged hands in 240 transactions. UBA traded 14.495 million shares estimated at N87.932 million in 276 transactions. Access traded 9.762 million shares valued at N60.345 million in 115 deals. Nigerian Breweries had 9.718 million shares valued at N301.305 million traded in 49 deals.
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