Nigerian stocks fell 0.59 per cent on Tuesday, easily obliterating Monday gains as selling pressure on equities, especially blue chip stocks like Nestle, Zenith, WAPCO and Flour Mills outweighed buying pressure.
Food giant Nestle’s drop followed its underwhelming 2020 financial performance, which has prompted the board to draw from the company’s retained earnings for 2018 and 2019 to shore up the dividend payout proposed for the last financial year.
The consumer goods was the runt of the litter of the five sectorial indices, sliding by 3.86 per cent Index to 539.47 points.
The NSE posted a negative breadth as 26 fallers emerged against 17 gainers.
The benchmark index slid to 39,697.62 index points, while market capitalisation tapered to N20.770 trillion.
Year to date, the index is up by 1.42 per cent.
TOP FIVE GAINERS
Academy led gainers on the NSE, appreciating by 9.76% to close at N0.45. PZ climbed up by 9.38% to N5.25. Royal Exchange added up 8% to end today’s trade at N0.27. Beta Glass advanced by 8% to N54. Regal Insurance rose to N0.28, notching up 7.69% in the process.
TOP FIVE LOSERS
Mutual Benefits topped the losers’ chart on the NSE today, declining by 10 per cent to close at N0.36. Ardova shed 9.97 per cent to end today’s trade at N16.25. Champion Breweries fell to N2.05, losing 9.69 per cent. The Initiates slumped to N0.47, recording 9.62 per cent depreciation. Sterling Bank closed at N1.46, going down by 8.75%.
TOP FIVE TRADES
In all, 222.574 million shares valued at N5.390 billion were traded today on the NSE in 4,470 deals.
Zenith was the most active stock on the NSE today with 48.102 million of its stocks worth N1.236 billion traded in 679 deals. 20.238 million units of UCAP shares priced at N121.971 million exchanged hands in 367 transactions.
Mutual Benefits had 7.224 million shares valued at N235.976 million traded in 43 deals. Japaul Gold traded 17.057 million shares estimated at N10.483 million in 57 transactions. Mansard traded 8.972 million shares valued at N9.379 million in 76 deals.
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