Coronavirus: Equity Market Sheds N85bn, Sustains Declining Profile
BY CHINYERE OBIORA, LAGOS – Despite different policies so far introduced to mitigate the effects of coronavirus pandemic within the system, transactions on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have remained volatile, shedding about N85 billion in the process.
The trading for the Tuesday failed to lift the market as sell-off continued among some medium and high cap stocks notwithstanding the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s new policy measures to cut interest rates on its intervention funds from nine to five per cent in this challenging environment.
Specifically, equity market declined by 0.71 per cent to N11.747 trillion from N11.832 trillion recorded the previous day.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index also depreciated by 162.12 basis points to 22543.07 points from 22705.19 that was reported on Monday.
The result showed that investors traded 675.910 million shares valued at N8.059 billion in 7368 deals against 551.483 million shares valued at N5.755 billion in 6981 deals.
An analysis of the investment showed that Nigerian Breweries led gainers table during the day, appreciating by N2.05 kobo to close at N30.00, MTN Nigeria Communications followed with a gain of N1.90 kobo to close at N95.00, Lafarge Wapco increased by N1.00 to close at N11.00, Stanbic IBTC added N0.95 kobo to close at N30.25 kobo, Zenith Bank Plc gained N0.70 kobo to close at N13.50 kobo.
On the contrary, Dangote Cement Plc recorded the highest loss during the day, shedding N15.30 kobo to close at N137.70 kobo, Cap Plc trailed with a loss of N1.95 kobo to close at N18.00, Ardova Plc fell by N1.50 kobo to close at N13.80 kobo, Nascon down by N0.95 kobo to close at N8.55 kobo, International Breweries declined by N0.55 kobo to close at N5.20 kobo
The result further showed that Zenith Bank Plc was the most active stock during the day, exchanging 173.936 million shares valued at N2.318 billion, and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc followed with account of 131.063 million shares worth N2.571 billion
Similarly, FBNHoldings traded 119.267 million shares cost N478.913 million, Access Bank Plc sold a total of 92.028 million shares worth N539.133 million while United Bank for Africa exchanged 31.470 million shares cost N168.889 million.
