Nigerian Local Bourse Drops 0.12% as Bears Return

Compared to the previous trading session, market activity closed lower as the overall volume and value decreased by -24.78 percent and -43.66 percent to 551.48 million units of N5.75 billion shares in 6,981 deals.

GUARANTY TRUST and ZENITH BANKS shares were the most active in today’s trading to boost market turnover and value list. Market size index was, however, positive as UBN (10.00%) led 14 gainers, as against 10 losers topped by TRANSCORP (+10.00%).

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Sector performance had a mixed closing, with some sectors showing significant improvement, while others sunk in at the bourse as the start of this week. The insurance sector improved by 1.31%, on the back of price appreciation in LASACO (+10.00%), AIICO (+8.22%) and NEM (+4.17%). Gains in tier-one banking stocks, UBN (+10.00%), ZENITH BANK (+7.56%) and ACCESS (+1.85%) spurred a 0.63% increase in the banking index.

Contrarily, the Industrial and the Consumer Goods indices declined by 0.52% and 0.16%, fuelled by losses sustained in WAPCO (-6.10%), DANGSUGAR (-2.96%) and NB (-0.18%). The Oil & Gas index remained unchanged.

Top Gainers

The top gainers Included Union Bank with a close at N6.60 up 10% on reports being acquired by Zenith Bank, JBERGER close at N22.15 up 9.65%; EKOCORP close at N6.00 up 9.09%; PZ to close N4.05 up 8% and ZENITH BANK N12.80 up 7.56% increase.

Top Losers
In addition, suffering the biggest loss at the bourse is SKYAVN down 9.73% to close at N2.32, FBNH down 7.50% to N3.70, WAPCO down 6.10% to close N10.00, UBA down 5.61% to close N5.05 and DANGSUGAR down 2.96%to close N9.85