Connect with us

Business

NSE LIVE! Dangote Cement drags equities down

Published

on

NSE LIVE! Equities remain down as selloff persists

A sharp decline in the share price of Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria’s most capitalised quoted company, overshadowed the market situation at the Nigerian stock market, changing the colour of the recent uptrend to negative.

While there were nearly two gainers for every loser and gains were generally bigger than losses, a N3 or 1.64 per cent loss by Dangote Cement slightly depressed the overall benchmark indices for the market.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined marginally from N9.552 trillion to close at N9.551 trillion.

The All Share Index (ASI), which tracks share prices at the stock market, slipped from 27,812.06 points to close at 27,810.28 points, representing a drop of 0.01 per cent. Average year-to-date return stood at -2.90 per cent.

The negative market position was driven mainly by Dangote Cement, which led the losers with a loss of N3 to close at N180 per share. There were 27 gainers against 15 losers. Most sectoral indices closed on the positive, underlining the subsisting widespread positive sentiments.

The NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 4.22 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index appreciated by 0.5 per cent while the NSE Banking Index and NSE Consumer Goods Index indices returned 0.3 per cent each. However, the NSE Insurance Index declined by 0.3 per cent.

Other top losers included Airlines Services and Logistics and Unity Bank, which lost 8.0 kobo each to close at N2.11 and 83 kobo respectively, Cutix and United Bank for Africa that lost 7.0 kobo each to close at N1.65 and N4.53 respectively, Access Bank dropped by 6.0 kobo to close at N5.80 while Cadbury Nigeria dropped by 5.0 kobo to close at N13.95.

Total turnover stood at 182.24 million shares valued at N2.93 billion in 3,113 deals. Banks remained the most active stocks. Guaranty Trust Bank led the activities chart with a turnover of 50.74 million shares valued at N1.31 billion.

Fidelity Bank recorded a turnover of 20.05 million shares worth N20.26 million while FBN Holdings recorded 17 million shares worth N53.4 million.

“Today’s performance can be ascribed to sell offs in Dangote Cement and profit taking in other stocks that have gained in previous trading sessions. We expect more of profit taking in the trading session to come,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated.

Meanwhile, the market remained largely positive. Oil and gas stocks led major rallies. Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the gainers with a gain of N25.11 to close at N270.11.

Forte Oil followed with a gain of N8.10 to close at N170.10. Lafarge Africa added N2 to close at N58. Total Nigeria chalked up N1 to close at N242 while International Breweries gathered 68 kobo to close at N19.68 per share.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now