- Equities Rally, Eterna, Mobil, NAHCO top Losers’ Chart
The Nigerian stock market, on Thursday, appreciated by N74bn with Eterna Plc, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Avation Handling Company Plc, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc and Cutix Plc emerging as the top losers.
The market closed on a positive note after recording huge losses this week, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index advanced by 0.59 per cent to settle year to date return at 35.13 per cent.
Despite Thursday’s gains, there were 15 advancers and 32 losers.
A total of 225.140 million shares valued at N5.479bn exchanged hands in 5,110 deals.
The NSE market capitalisation rose to N12.517tn from N12.443tn, as the ASI closed at 36,316.58 basis points from 36,102.38 basis points.
The shares of Eterna dropped by 6.01 per cent to close at N3.44 from N3.66; Mobil Oil shares price declined by five per cent to close at N225.06 from N236.90, while the shares of NAHCO depreciated to N3.12 from N3.28, losing 4.88 per cent.
Similarly, CCNN share price fell by 4.73 per cent to close at N9.67 from N10.15, while Cutix share price dropped by 4.11 per cent to close at N2.10 from N2.19.
Fidson Healthcare Plc led the gainers’ list, increasing by five per cent to close at N3.15. Also on the gainers’ list were May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Livestock Feeds Plc and Continental Reinsurance Plc, which appreciated by 4.98 per cent, 4.94 per cent, 4.94 per cent and 4.84 per cent, respectively.
Sector performance as measured by the NSE sector indices revealed that at the close of trading, the NSE food/beverage and the NSE oil/gas indices declined by 0.42 per cent and 1.17 per cent, respectively while the NSE banking, the NSE industrial and the NSE insurance indices recorded gains of 0.06 per cent, 0.85 per cent, and 0.34 per cent, respectively.
“We attribute today’s gain to the price appreciation recorded by Dangote Cement Plc. We also note the trickles of bargain hunting witnessed amongst some large cap banking stocks.
“However, we expect the market to close negative for the week due to strong bearish sentiments observed at the start of the week,” analysts at Meristem Securities said.
