Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc, Transcorp and UBA Plc were the most active stocks yesterday as the stock market resumed this month’s trading on a bearish note.
The market had closed January on a positive note with analysts expressing optimism that investors would continue to pick stocks with attractive dividend yields. However, at the close of business yesterday, the All Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.13 per cent to 42,357.90 points.
The downturn was attributed to sell-offs in Nestle, Flourmill and Access Bank, resulting in the year-to-date (ytd) return dropping to 5.2 per cent. In the same vein, investors lost N29 billion to close at N22.157 trillion.
Further analysis of the market showed that activity waned as the volume and value of stocks traded declined by 12.4 and 8.6 per cent respectively to 586.80 million units and N6.02 billion which changed hands in 7,611 deals.
Commenting on this, Afrinvest said it expects the trend in corporate releases to shape performance this week. UBN topped the activity chart with 79.58 million shares worth N469.64 million, Transcorp sold 61.75 million shares valued at N64.67 million while UBA traded 44.31 million shares valued at N406.71 million.
Meanwhile, 35 stocks appreciated in value, while 28 others depreciated. Honeywell Flour topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N1.43 per share, Champion followed with 9.97 per cent to close at N3.42, MCNichols increased with 9.80 per cent to close at 0.56 kobo, Wapic garnered 9.26 per cent to close at 0.59 kobo.
while Jaiz Bank gained 9.23 per cent to close at 0.71 kobo.
On the flipside, Royal Exchange Plc topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.36 kobo per share, Guinea Insurance was next with 9.09 per cent to close at 0.20 kobo, Afriinsure decreased with 8 per cent to close at 0.23 kobo, Julius Berger fell by 7.28 per cent to close at N21 while Multiverse lost 4.55 per cent to close at 0.21 kobo.
– Sun