COVID-19: NSE market indicators open week with 2.24% loss

Activities reopened for the Week on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday, with a decrease of 2.24 per cent following share price depreciation in blue chips.
Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) which opened for the week at 22,198.43 shed 497.45 or 2.24 per cent to close at 21,700.98.
Also, the market capitalisation lost N260 billion to close at N11.308 trillion compared with N11.568 trillion recorded on Friday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and Unilever Nigeria.
Analysts at Afinvest Limited said: “We expect the bearish trend to persist as the pandemic continues.
“We, however, note that current prices present opportunities for bargain hunting,” they said.
Market breadth closed negative with nine gainers against 25 losers.
Dangote Sugar Refinery, Nigerian Breweries, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, United Bank for Africa and Wema Bank led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent each, to close at N9, N27, N23.85, N4.50 and 45k respectively per share.
United Capital came second with 9.96 per cent to close at N2.17, while Guaranty Trust Bank dropped 9.95 per cent to close at N16.75, per share.
Lafarge Africa went down by 9.90 to close at N9.10, while Unilever Nigeria shed 9.87 per cent to close at N10.50, per share.
Conversely, Neimeth dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10 per cent to close at 44k per share.
May and Baker Nigeria followed with a gain 8.94 per cent to close at N1.95, while Custodian Investment rose by 8.65 per cent, to close N5.65, per share.
Flour Mills improved by 7.77 per cent to close at N20.80, while Chemical and Allied Products rose by 7.69 per cent to close at N21 per share.
However, the total volume of trades rose by 22.37 per cent with an exchange of 464.36 million valued at N3.87 billion in 5,883 deals.
This was in contrast with 379.48 million shares worth N3.42 billion achieved in 4,669 deals on Friday.
Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 120.46 million shares worth N1.30 billion.
Guaranty Trust Bank trailed with 63.27 million shares valued at N1.06 billion, while FBN Holdings traded 46.68 million shares worth N176.06 million.
Access Bank traded 31.009 million shares valued at N173.18 million, while UBA transacted 29.16 million shares worth N136.02 million.