NSE: N1.433 trillion lost in 5 days

Nigerian Stock holders at the Lagos bourse further saw their portfolio shrinking as bearish pressure continued to dampen market prices. Investors lost N421 billion today, capping a week of big losses that amounted to N1.433 trillion in five days. In dollar terms, the loss amounts to $8.64 billion.

The market had opened on Monday with a capitalisation of N12.437 trillion. By Friday, it has shrunk by 11.52 per cent to close at N11.004 trillion.

There is no indication yet that the selling pressure, which began two weeks ago, would not run into the coming week.

Analysts are blamimg the string of hefty losses to foreign stockholders moving their money away, with oil prices crashing and the United States halting the quantitative monetary policy.

In today’s transactions the All-Share Index lost 1269 basis points of 3.68 per cent to close lower at 33,225.75, compared with the 34,494.93 achieved on Thursday. Cumulatively during the week, the index also shrank by 11.52 per cent.

Nestle for the third consecutive day led the losers’ chart by N44.17 to close at N839.33 per share. It was followed by Forte Oil, which lost N18.98 to N175.77, while Dangote Cement dropped N9.92 to close at N188.53 per share. Mobil lost N8.52 to close at N161.98, while Lafarge Wapco dipped N4.04 to close at N76.84 per share.

On the other hand, Betaglass recorded the highest price gain, appreciating by N1.05 to N22.05 per share. NAHCO gained 17k to close at N5, while Union Bank grew by 15k to close at N6.97 per share. UBA garnered 9k to close at N4.30 and Costain appreciated by 3k to close at 98k per share.

Linkage Assurance emerged the most traded stock with an exchange of 300 million shares worth N150.Staco trailed with 197.03 million shares valued N98.52 million, while FBN Holdings accounted for 87.32 shares worth N796 million. Zenith Bank sold 70.25 million shares valued at N1.39 billion and GTB traded 46.25 million shares worth N1.06 billion.

In all, investors bought and sold 1.01 billion shares valued N6.87 billion transacted in 4,906 deals.

This was against 1.33 billion shares worth N8.37 billion traded in 4,188 deals on Thursday.