Equities Slide, Forte, Oando, Nascon, Morison Top Losers

• Equities Slide, Forte, Oando, Nascon, Morison Top Losers

The Nigerian equities market dropped by N14bn at the close of trading on Thursday as Forte Oil Plc, Oando Plc, Nascon Allied Industries Plc, Morison Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc topped the losers’ chart.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation fell to N13.133tn from N13.147tn, while the NSE All-Share Index closed at 38,102.85 basis points from 38,144.02 basis points recorded on Wednesday.

A total of 362.670 million shares valued at N5.596bn were traded in 4,055 deals.

The bourse closed in the red zone, as the NSE ASI pared by 0.11 per cent to drag the year-to-date return to 41.78 per cent. However, volume of shares traded advanced by 10.35 per cent, while the market value of transactions declined by 8.28 per cent. The market recorded 20 gains and 27 declines.

Forte Oil, Oando, Nascon, Morison and Dangote Sugar shares slid by 9.71 per cent, five per cent, 4.99 per cent, 4.85 per cent and 4.84 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, Unilever Nigeria Plc topped the gainers’ chart after advancing by five per cent to close at N43.05. BOC Gasses Nigeria Plc, Conoil Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Wema Bank Plc followed on the gainers’ table, appreciating by 4.94 per cent, 4.38 per cent, four per cent and 3.92 per cent, accordingly.

Measuring sector performance by the NSE sector indices, only the NSE food/beverage index advanced in the day by 0.41 per cent. The NSE oil/gas, NSE banking, NSE insurance and NSE industrial indices recorded respective declines of 2.33 per cent, 0.99 per cent, 0.43 per cent and 0.004 per cent at the end of trading.

“We attribute Thursday’s weak market performance to sell pressures on certain large cap banking stocks. In the last trading day of the week (Friday), we expect profit-taking activities on stocks that have gained significantly in the past few days,” analysts at Meristem Securities said in a post.