The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, on Tuesday, August 29, continued to cave into bear pressure dragging down value of benchmark indices.
As such, the All Share Index shed 0.42 per cent to close at 36,165.93 points. Likewise, Market Capitalisation dropped N52.2 billion to close at N12.465 trillion while the Year to Date return reduced to 35 per cent.
Almost all sector indices ended on a negative note, with exception of the banking index, which climbed 0.27 per cent on account of gains recorded in Stanbic IBTC following impressive half year financials.
The bank recorded a profit after tax growth of 113 per cent in the first half of the year 2017 and declared an interim dividend of 60 kobo to shareholders with the option of a scrip dividend. The banking index thus emerged the day’s sole gainer with a growth of 0.27 per cent.
Market breadth stayed negative with 26 losers paired against 14 gainers, with Mobil and Jaiz Bank sitting atop the losers table with a drop of 5 percent each to close at 173.79 and 76 kobo respectively.
Okomuoil slumped by 4.99 percent to settle at N65.64 per share, Julius Berger dropped 4.97 per cent to close at N34.20, while First Aluminium depreciated 4.76 per cent to close at 60 kobo per share
Conversely, Champion Breweries led the day’s advancers adding 6.84 per cent to close at N2.50. It was trailed by Neimeth, which grew by 4.82 per cent to close at 87 kobo per share, and Cutix added 4.74 per cent to close at N2.21 per share.
May & Baker also gained 4.73 per cent to close at N2.88 per share while Livestock feeds advanced by 4.44 per cent to close the day at 94 kobo per share.
Fidelity bank which topped activity chart with the sale of 23.3 million shares worth N31.4 million.
Zenith Bank came next with the sale of 18.2 million shares valued at N416.4 million and FCMB exchanged 17.3 million shares valued at N19.1 million.
Transcorp sold 8.8 million units of shares at N11.4 million while Access Bank exchanged 8.8 million units valued at N88.1 million shares.
At the end of trading, investors in 3,716 deals traded a total 144.5 million shares worth N1.5 billion compared to 348 million units, valued at N2.98 billion exchanged in 3,276 deals on Monday
