NSE opens February trading with N160 billion loss

In spite of an influx of unaudited 2019 full year results, trading on the nation’s bourse opened for February on a bearish posture, as investors’ sentiment remained weak.

Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index on Monday lost 310.13 points or 1.08 per cent to close at 28,533.40 against 28,843.53 recorded on Friday due to sell-off of tier one banking stocks.

Also, the Year-to-Date return moderated to 6.30 per cent.

In the same vein, the market capitalisation, which opened at N14.857 trillion, shed N160 billion or 1.08 per cent to close at N14.697 trillion.

A breakdown of the price movement chart shows that Forte Oil recorded the highest loss to lead the losers’ chart, dropping by N2.05 to close at N18.55 per share.

Julius Berger trailed with a loss of N1.30 to close at N21.20, while Cadbury was down by N1.05 to close at N9.70 per share. Zenith Bank lost 95k to close at N19.90, while Access Bank was down by 80k to close at N9.10 per share.

Conversely, UDPC Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) led the gainers’ table, growing by 25k to close at N3.35 per share. Union Bank of Nigeria followed with 10k to close at N3.35, while Honey Well gained 9k to close at N1.06 per share.

Law Union and Rock appreciated by 7k to close at 77k, while UACN added 7k to close at N8.95 per share.

Zenith Bank dominated the activity chart having accounted for 47.52 million shares valued at N952.85 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with an account of 35.82 million shares worth N1.06 billion, while FCMB Group traded 23.82 million shares valued at N42.72 million.

United Bank for Africa sold 18.50 million shares worth N139.72 million, while FBN Holdings traded 10.49 million shares valued at N100.38 million.

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However, the volume of shares traded dipped by 27.83 per cent as investors traded 251.59 million shares worth N3.15 billion in 4,752 deals.

This was against 348.61 million shares valued at N4.21 billion achieved in 4, 610 deals on Friday.