Nigerian Stock Exchange Loses N68bn on Tuesday

• Nigerian Stock Exchange Loses N68bn on Tuesday

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continues its bearish movement on Tuesday after losing N111 billion on Monday to take its total losses to N179 billion this week.

The activity level remained weak with market capitalisation of listed equities declining by 0.49 percent or N68 billion to N13.744 trillion, down from N13.811 trillion it closed on Monday.

All-Share Index shed 140.15 points from 28,340.93 it opened to 28,200.88.

Dragging the year-to-date loss to 10.28 percent, while month-to-date decline dipped to 3.29 percent.

The exchange was weighed upon by the losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks like Okomu Oil, Chemical and Allied Products (CAP), Forte Oil, Conoil and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

A total of 32 stocks closed in the red, while only 10 emerged gainers.

Red Star Express gained 9.81 percent to lead gainers.

Followed by Lasaco Assurance with a 9.68 percent profit, while NEM Insurance grew by 4.09 percent to close at N2.29 per share.

Investors traded 217.13 million shares valued at N1.8 billion in 3,595 transactions.

This was higher than the 175.17 million shares traded on Monday but lower in value when compared with N2.14 billion recorded.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said the bearish performance will persist this week as sell pressure continues.

Cordros Capital Limited said the outlook remained conservative in the absence of catalysts to drive market sentiment.