Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) returned to bearish mood on Tuesday following sell pressure in blue chips, forcing the market capitalisation to drop by N69 billion.
Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N13.483 trillion lost N69 billion or 0.51 per cent following loses by Betaglass, Dangote Cement and Forte Oil.
Also, the All-Share Index dipped 141.98 points or 0.51 per cent to close at 27,527.40 compared with trillion 27,669.38 achieved on Monday.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said, “We maintain our bearish outlook for the equities market in the absence of policy levers to strengthen investors’ appetite.”
The market breadth closed negative, with six gainers against 23 losers.
Betaglass topped the laggards’ table with a loss of N6.60 to close at N59.75 per share.
Dangote Cement, one of the mostly capitalised stocks, came second with a loss of N2 to close at N168, while Forte Oil dipped N1.15 to close at N18.30 per share.
Cadbury dropped N1.10 to close at N10.30, while Dangote Flour was down by 35k to close at N20 per share.
Conversely, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria led the gainers’ table, growing by 45k to close at N13.45 per share.
Lafarge Africa followed with a gain of 20k to close at N14.50, while May and Baker Nigeria garnered 10k to close at N2.40 per share.
Access Bank also appreciated by 10k to close at N6.20, while United Capital improved by 8k to close at N2.14 per share.
In the same vein, the volume of shares transacted dropped by 39.18 per cent as investors bought and sold 170.72 million shares worth N2 in 3,614 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 280.69 million shares valued at N1.41 billion exchanged in 3,314 deals on Monday.
Access Bank Plc was the most active stock during the day, exchanging 65.13 million shares worth N409.15 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc followed with an account of 17.62 million shares valued at N488.82 million, while Dangote Flour Mill traded 16.16 million shares worth N324.55 million.
Zenith Bank traded 10.94 million shares valued at N197.42 million, while United Bank for Africa sold a total of 7.58 million shares valued at N45.16 million.
