Nigerian stocks fall for second straight day as volume shrinks

 Nigerian stocks depreciated for the second consecutive day on Friday as the benchmark index dipped by 0.1 per cent.

The index had on Wednesday touched its peak level since late June 2008 but at the end of trading Friday, transaction volume contracted by 22 per cent relative to Thursday’s even though turnover considerably advanced by 69 per cent.

Huge sell-off in the shares of beer-maker Nigerian Breweries triggered the slide, supported by MTN Nigeria. The telecom company’s shares saw a little profit-taking from traders after steady appreciation over the past ten days.

The decline would have been steeper save for the moderating impact of Geregu Power on the gainers’ side as the electricity producer appreciated by roughly 5 per cent or N30.8 million.

Market breadth, an indicator of the direction stocks are likely to head soon, was negative with 22 losers on record compared to 13 gainers.

The all-share index dropped 32.6 basis points to 54,327.3, while market capitalisation eased to N29.6 trillion. Year to date, the index is up by 6 per cent.

Top five gainers

Conoil topped the gainers’ chart, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N32.05. Tripple Gee went up 9.6 per cent to N1.3 while Geregu Power rose to N209.7, notching up 4.9 per cent in the process. NPF Microfinance Bank added 1.1 per cent to end the trade at N1.8 while Caverton completed the top 5, climbing by 1 per cent to N0.97.

Top five losers

International Energy Insurance was the worst performing stock, declining by 9.5 per cent to close at N1.24. Sovereign Trust shed 9.1 per cent to close at N0.30. The Initiates fell to N0.44, losing 8.33 per cent while Consolidated Hallmark declined 7.4 per cent to N0.63. Cutix closed at N2.05, going down by 7.2 per cent.

Top five trades

A total of 175.7 million shares estimated at N5.3 billion were traded in 3,563 deals.

FBN Holdings accounted for the most trade volume, transacting 30.2 million units of its shares worth N357.2 million traded in 112 deals. Nigerian Breweries’ shares of 28.1 million units, priced at N1.1 billion exchanged hands in 110 transactions.

GTCO, on its part, traded 12.1 million shares valued at N305.3 million in 211 deals. Royal Exchange traded 8.4 million shares estimated at N6 million in 49 transactions while Access Holdings traded 7.6 million shares valued at N68.8 million in 109 deals.