SHARE VALUE ON NSE DIPS BY N80BN

By NBF News

By MICHAEL EBOH
A declining trend was recorded in trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, last week, as the value of listed equities depreciated by N80.05 billion.

The value of listed equities, represented by the market capitalization, depreciated by 1.22 per cent to close the week at N6.499 trillion from N6.579 trillion at which it opened the week. The All-share index also dipped by 1.22 per cent or 254.01 basis points to close at 20,623.63 points from 20,877.64 points.

MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, led 41 other stocks in the price losers' category, dropping by N4.68 or 9.7 per cent to close N43.39 per share, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc followed with a loss of N3.46 or 11.9 per cent to close at N25.65 per share and Okomu Oil Palm Plc dipped by N2.36 or N9.7 per cent to close at N21.89 per share.

On the other hand, 19 companies recorded share price improvement with Nestle Nigeria Plc, spurred on by renewed investors' ahead of its dividends declaration, recorded the highest share price gain, rising by N6.65 or 1.5 per cent to close at N446.65 per share; Nigerian Breweries Plc followed with a gain of N1.39 or 1.5 per cent to close at N95.40 per share and Presco Plc garnered N0.50 or 5.9 per cent to close at N9 per share.

The declining trend continued in equity trading, as investors exchanged 1.342 billion shares valued at N7.01 billion in 15,166 deals, representing a decline of 16.8 per cent from the penultimate week's turnover of 1.613 billion shares valued at N15.1 billion in 17,444 deals.

The Financial Services sector accounted for 1.13 billion shares valued at N4 billion traded in 8,372 deals, while the Consumer Goods sector followed with the exchange of 70.4 million shares valued at N2.15 billion in 3,026 deals.