Equities Investors Lose N284bn As Bear Resurfaces

The local equities market, yesterday, halted the previous day’s gaining streak as price decline in MRS Oil Nigeria Plc and 31 others pulled the overall capitalization down by N284 billion.

The All-Share Index (ASI) lost 460.20 points, representing a loss of 0.44 per cent to close at 103,958.75 points. Also, market capitalisation shed by N284 billion to close at N64.156 trillion.

The decline was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; MRS Oil Nigeria, Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings, Fidelity Bank and Unilever Nigeria.

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, closed negative as 30 stocks advanced while 32 declined. Eunisell Interlinked, SCOA Nigeria and Okomu Oil emerged the highest price gainer of 10 per cent each to close at N12.54, N4.07 and N488.40 respectively, per share.

Skye Shelter Fund followed with a gain of 9.97 per cent to close at N197.35, while NEM Insurance advanced by 9.96 per cent to close at N13.25, per share.

On the other side, MRS Oil Nigeria led others on the losers’ chart with 9.95 per cent to close at N162.90, per share. Red Star Express followed with a decline of 9.90 per cent to close at N4.55, while Learn Africa shed 9.82 per cent to close at N4.50, per share.

DAAR Communications declined by 8.33 per cent to close at 77 kobo, while Veritas Kapital Assurance declined by 7.74 per cent to close at N1.43, per share.

Meanwhile, the total volume traded increased by 2.53 per cent to 542.230 million units, valued at N13.636 billion, and exchanged in 15,561 deals. Transactions in the shares of Access Holdings led the activity with 43.986 million shares worth N1.190 billion. Sterling Financial Holdings Company followed with an account of 42.228 million shares valued at N254.293 million, while Zenith Bank traded 33.792 million shares valued at N1.718 billion.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 29.198 million shares worth N1.094 billion, while FCMB Group traded 26.050 million shares worth N313.140 million.