NSE All-share index drops to 29,000 mark on sell pressure; as naira firms at N225 to dollar

The All-Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Wednesday dropped to 29,000 mark due to the free fall of price of equities.

The index lost 390.24 points or 1.29 per cent to close at 29,668.16 compared with 30,058.40 recorded on Tuesday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation dipped by N134 billion or 1.29 per cent to close at N10.196 trillion due to price depreciation by some blue chips.

Total topped the losers’ chart, depreciating by N4.89 to close at N150.01 per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with N4 to close at N160, UACN lost N1.71 to close at N25.75 per share.

Nigerian Breweries shed N1.51 to close at N135, while PZ Industries declined by N1 to close at N24 per share.

On the other hand, Mobil Oil led the gainers’ table, increasing by N7.50 to close at N159 per share.

Okomu Oil followed with a gain of N3 to close at N32.40, while Unilever garnered 50k to close at N47 per share.

National Salt appreciated by 36k to close at N7.66, while Lafarge Africa went up by 27k to close at N98.54 per share.

A total of 160.61 million shares valued at N1.65 billion were traded by investors in 3,267 deals.

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This was against the 124.24 million shares worth N1.38 billion transacted in 2,930 deals on Tuesday.

Transcorp emerged the most traded stock with a total of 26.85 million shares worth N57.35 million.

It was followed by UBA which accounted for 20.04 million shares valued at N84.29 million, while ETI traded 12.69 million shares valued at N234.76 million.

FBN Holdings sold 12.62 million shares valued at N75.68 million and Zenith exchanged 9.39 million shares worth N158.69 million.

Meanwhile, the naira, Wednesday firmed against the dollar at the parallel market, gaining N1 on Wednesday afternoon as it traded for N225 against the dollar.

It had previously traded for N226 against the dollar.

In the same vein the naira also appreciated in value at the official interbank rate as it gained N0.02 to trade at N196.98 as against its previous value of N197.

Traders at the parallel market expressed the belief that the naira might experience further appreciation as the price of oil at the international market went up recently.

The price of oil has risen to 50.15 dollars at the international market.