Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended on a negative note on Friday as a total of 38 firms had their shares depreciated
Losses in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Access Bank Plc and Oando Plc, among others, dragged the NSE market capitalisation down by N250bn.
In 4,448 deals, 476.650 shares valued at N6.181bn were traded on the last day of trading last week.
Meanwhile, the Naira on Monday depreciated further at the parallel market amid growing shortage of the currency. The Naira lost N5 to exchange at N297 to the dollar, representing a depreciation of 1.7 per cent.
It traded previously for N292 to the dollar over the weekend and at the official interbank window, the dollar remained at N197. Traders at the market expressed concerns at the widening gap between the price of foreign exchange at the official interbank window and that at the parallel market.
They were, however, hopeful that the directive of the apex bank to money deposit banks to reopen domiciliary accounts could redress the shortage of dollars.
Other companies on the losers’ table were: Skye Bank Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, May and Baker Nigeria Plc, 7-UP Bottling Company Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc, UACN Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, Flourmills Nigeria Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, and UAC Property Development Company Plc.
Nascon Allied Industries Plc, Dangote sugar Refinery Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Portland Paints and Products Nigeria Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, N.E.M. Insurance Company Nigeria Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc, Learn Africa Plc, Trans-nationwide Express Plc, Africa Prudential Registrars Plc, Fidelity bank Plc, Continental Reinsurance Plc, Eterna Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, McNichols Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, International breweries Plc and CAP Plc, also recorded losses in their share prices.
Guaranty Trust Bank shares shed N1.44 (9.72 per cent) to close at N13.37 from N14.81 while that of Zenith Bank closed at N9.44 from N10.45, losing N1.01 (9.67 per cent).
The shares of Cadbury depreciated by N1.42 (9.65 per cent) to close at N13.30 from N14.72 while Access Bank’s shares lost N0.39 (9.38 per cent) to close at N3.77 from N4.16.
Oando also recoded a N0.39 (9.31 per cent) in its share price to close at N3.80 from N4.19.
Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc and Nigerian Breweries Plc emerged the top-two gainers.
Tigerbrands gained N0.08 (9.64 per cent) to close at N0.91 from N0.83 while Nigerian Breweries share price rose to N96.90 from N92.33, appreciating by N4.57 (4.75 per cent).
Livestock Feeds Plc and United Bank for Africa followed with Livestock Feeds gaining N0.05 (4.31 per cent to close at N1.21 from N1.16; and UBA share price rising to N2.60 from N2.59, appreciating by N0.01 (0.39 per cent).
The NSE, in its 2016 outlook, had, last week, warned that 2016 will also be a challenging year for the capital market and the Nigerian economy at large, as was the case in 2015.
It said the performances of the market indices were reflections of scenarios in the wider economy, but pointed that the current state of the market create challenges as well as opportunities for existing and would-be investors.
The NSE CEO, Oscar Onyema, was quoted as saying, “Among emerging markets, recession has materialised in Brazil and Russia, and the trend is likely to continue amid weakening oil and other commodity prices. The Nigerian stock market had already lost $30bn since July 2014.
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, while the recent performance of Nigeria and South Africa, has been lackluster, the overall region has weathered the commodity slump better than Latin America and elsewhere, with growth slated at 4.3 per cent in 2016, up from 3.8 per cent in 2015.
“This growth is expected to be supported by the moderate recovery in the global economy, and growth in low-income developing countries which compared to 2015 are projected to grow by one more percentage point to 5.8 per cent in 2016.”
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