Sell pressure persists on NSE, market capitalisation shed N15bn

The Nigerian equities market maintained a negative session on Thursday with the market capitalisation dipping further by N15 billion.
Specifically, the market capitalisation lost N15 billion to close at N13.183 trillion compared with N13.198 trillion on Wednesday.
In the same vein, the All-Share Index shed 30.18 points or 0.11 per cent to close at 27,052.93 in contrast with 27,083.11 achieved on Wednesday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are; Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Unilever Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and Custodian and Allied.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said “in the absence of any major stimulus, we expect the extant negative performance to conclude the week. Nonetheless, we see opportunities for bargain hunting in stocks with sound fundamentals.”
Market breadth was negative, with nine gainers versus 23 losers.
A breakdown of the price movement table shows that ETI and Unilever Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N6.30 and N28.80 respectively.
Red Star Express followed with a decline of 9.98 per cent to close at N4.24, while Stanbic IBTC Holdings shed 9.97 per cent to close at N34.30 per share.
Custodian and Allied dropped by 9.68 per cent to close at N5.40 per share.
Conversely, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) recorded the highest price gain of 9.43 per cent to lead the gainers’ table to close at N14.50 per share.
Unity Bank followed with a gain of 7.81 per cent to close at 69k, while Livestock Feeds appreciated by 7.32 per cent to close at 44k per share.
Jaiz Bank rose by 5.41 per cent to close at 39k, while MTN Nigeria Communications grew by 4.45 per cent to close at N135 per share.
Guaranty Trust Bank drove the activity chart with an exchange of 42.5 million shares valued at N1.09 billion.
Transcorp trailed with a turnover of 37.87 million shares worth N33.12 million, while Access Bank accounted for 22.11 million shares valued at N130.09 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 19.38 million shares worth N28.17 million, while Zenith International Bank exchanged 18.33 million shares valued at N298.56 million.
In all, total volume traded dropped by 0.81 per cent as investors bought and sold 233.2 million shares worth N3.64 billion traded in 4,331 deals.
This was against 235.12 million shares valued at N3.29 billion traded in 3,922 deals on Wednesday.