Investors Lose N227.9bn On Nigerian Stock Exchange Market In Three Days

The fortunes of investors on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday, declined for the third consecutive day, resulting to N227.9 billion loss in the first three trading days of the year.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), yesterday, mopped up N172.8 billion excess cash from the banking system through the sale of treasury bills, prompting cost of funds to rise moderately.

Trading on the NSE for the first three days showed that market capitalization, which represents total value of listed shares, dropped steadily from N9.25 trillion at the end of 2016 to N9.02 trillion yesterday. The market capitalization dropped by N88.7 billion on Tuesday, N41.9 billion on Wednesday and by N97.4billion, yesterday.

The All share Index (ASI) also dropped steadily to 26, 212.09 points, yesterday, from 26,874.62 at the end of 2016. Last year, investors lost N603.7 billion on the NSE as the market capitalisation fell from N9.850 trillion on December 31, 2015 to N9.246 trillion at the close of trading on December 30, 2016, representing 6.13 per cent Year to Date loss.

Capital market operators attributed the loss to the impact of the economic recession on the stock market. Yesterday’s decline in market capitalisation was majorly driven by sell sentiment in highly capitalised stocks.

Dangote Cement Plc dropped by 4.0 per cent. However, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose by 121.8 per cent and 14.4 per cent to close at 137.7m units and N898.7million respectively.