Equities market sheds 0.35% amid sell pressure

Temitope Adebayo

The equities market of The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday sustained its bearish run, shedding 0.35 per cent due to sell pressure.

For instance, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 98.13 points, representing a dip of 0.35 per cent to close at 27,990.61 points.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N13.689 trillion lost N48 billion to close at N13.641 trillion.

The downtrend was caused by losses recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are: MTN Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Forte Oil, Global Spectrum Energy Service and Caverton Offshore Support Group.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated that, “We expect the bearish performance to persist, although there are opportunities for investors to take advantage of undervalued stocks.”

Global Spectrum Energy Service followed with a decline of 9.57 per cent to close at N5.20, while Morison Industries depreciated by 9.09 per cent to close at 50k per share.

Caverton Offshore Support Group lost 8.95 per cent to close at N2.34, while Oando dipped five per cent to close at N3.80 per share.

On a brighter note, the FCMB Group recorded the highest price gain of 8.81 per cent to close at N1.73 per share.

The total volume traded surged by 127.59 per cent with an exchange of 359.11 million shares worth N1.89 billion traded in 3,099 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 157.79 million shares valued at N2.52 billion accounted in 3,253 deals on Wednesday.

Transactions in the shares of Courteville Business Solutions topped the activity chart with 150.04 million shares worth N30.01 million.

The FCMB Group followed with a total of 73.27 million shares valued at N123.22 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 35.7 million shares worth N200.55 million.