NSE: NEW DG EMERGES IN DECEMBER AS MARKET SHEDS N81BN

Interim President of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Ballama Manu said in Lagos on Tuesday that the new director general of the exchange may emerge in December.

Speaking during the Exchange's 49th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, he said the new director general would emerge in December and that extra general meeting would have to hold to confirm the appointment adding that this would depend on the approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

He said one of the mandates of the interim management is to complete the recruitment process for the substantive director general and executive directors and that the process is near completion.

Before now, over 300 people have applied for the post.

Meanwhile, the market shed N81.07 billion at the end of trading on Tuesday.

The market witnessed a deep cut due to active sell tendency in the Banking, Food & Beverages and Foreign listings sectors while blue chips remained the most hit while significant sell activities observed on Zenith Bank Plc.

The market capitalization of 199 first-tier reflected the continued bearish tendency on the bourse, dropping value by N81.07 billion as low investment commitment recorded today with battered market breath as equity prices slide accordingly.

Also, 132 equities were traded with more activities in Banking, Insurance, Food & Beverages and Information Tech. sectors.

Also, Dangote Cement Plc, the market leader by capitalisation remained unchanged at N121.15, still trading below its listing price of N135.00 with -10.26 per cent aggregate loss.

Four of the NSE sectoral indexes closed negative as NSE 30 which basically measures the performance of blue chips in the market dropped by 1.32 per cent, NSE Banking dropped the highest point by 1.91 per cent, NSE Food & Beverages declined by 1.81 per cent, NSE Insurance dipped by 1.45 per cent while NSE Oil & Gas closed flat 0.12 per cent.

At the close of trading session, the NSE All-Share Index moved down by 1.02 per cent to close at 24,626.98 as against a decline of 0.32 per cent recorded previous session to close at 24,880.86. In the same vein, market capitalization depreciated by N81.07 billion to close at N7.87 trillion  as against a loss of N25.25 billion recorded on Monday to close at N7.94 trillion.

The number of gainers at the close of trading session closed lower at 15 positions as against 18 gainers recorded previous session while decliners closed higher at 46, compared with 38 positions losers in the previous trading day - suggesting negative market breath.

As usual, Banking sector led the market transaction volume with 333.59 million units valued at N3.85 billion exchanged in 3,856 deals as against 182.80 million units valued at N1.24 billion exchanged in 2,931 deals recorded in previous day trading.

The volume recorded in the sector was driven by transaction in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, UBA Plc, First Bank Plc and BankPHB Plc and the total volume of 267.84 million units valued at N3.34 billion traded in the shares of the five stocks accounted for 66.28% of the entire market volume and their value represented 69.95 per cent of the market's value.

Transaction volume on the exchange moved up by 55.888 per cent to close at 404.11 million units exchanged in 6,650 deals as against a dip of -32.81% recorded previous trading to close at 259.24 million units exchanged in 5,233 deals.

Also, market value surged by 109.28 per cent to close at N4.77 billion as against a depreciation by 50.45 per cent recorded previous trading session to close at N2.28 billion