Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended on a negative note on Tuesday as many blue chips recorded price depreciation.. The market capitalisation dipped by N52 billion or 0.49 per cent to close at N10.49 trillion. This was against the N10.54 trillion posted at the close of business on Monday. Similarly, the All-Share Index lost 162.57 points or 0.49 per cent to close at 32,784.56 from 32,947.13 recorded on Monday.
NewGold recorded the highest price loss of N18 to close at N2,400 per unit. Guinness came second with a loss of N5 to close at N265. Dangote Cement depreciated by N4 to close at N141 per share. Cadbury lost N1.50 to close at N34 while Total dipped by 53k to close at N151 per share. Mr Emeka Madubuike, the Managing Director of Compass Investment, attributed the lull in the market to investors’ concentration on capital appreciation due to improved price of some equities.
Madubuike said that most investors had resorted to profit-taking to cash in on the gains recorded so far instead of waiting for low dividends. Conversely, OkomuOil led the gainers’ chart by N1.45 to close at N55 per share. It was followed by Zenith Bank with a gain of 59k to close at N21.49 per share. Air Service achieved 42k to close at N4.65, while Nigerian Breweries gained 25k to close at N162 per share.
Custodian and Allied Insurance was investors’ delight as it traded a total of 77.37 million shares valued at N149.23 million. It was followed by FCMB which exchanged 47.03 million shares worth N235.16 million, while UBA accounted for 36.21 million shares valued at N289.88 million. In all, a total of 473.58 million shares worth N4.04 billion were exchanged in 6,233 deals on Tuesday. This was in contrast to the 393.21 million shares valued at N4.31 billion traded in 5,340 deals on Monday.
