BEVERLY HILLS, JULY 20, (THEWILL) – THE naira on Wednesday suffered heavily at the parallel market depreciating against the dollar to N375/$ as the All-Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost 267.38 points or 0.94 per cent to close at 28,221.18 against 28,488.56 posted on Tuesday.
The depreciation of the naira was triggered by an increased scarcity of the dollar in the interbank market aggravated by lack of intervention dollar sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Commercial banks had been quoting the dollar at N281 to N285 but ended at 295.50 naira on Wednesday.
Investors have welcomed the removal of currency controls but are seeking signs of a concrete recovery of the economy.
On the NSE, the market capitalisation, which opened at N9.784 trillion, shed N92 billion or 0.94 per cent to close at N9.692 trillion.
Dangote Cement topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N2.50 to close at N187.50 per share.
Total trailed with a loss of N2 to close at N180, while Stanbic lost 72k to close at N14.20 per share.
Zenith Bank shed 64k to close at N15.50 and Oando dipped 57k to close at N5.39 per share.
Conversely, Flour Mills recorded the highest price gain to lead the gainers’ table, growing by 20k to close at N21.70 per share.
Dangote Sugar followed with a gain of 15k to close at N6.80, Premier Breweries gained 14k to close at N2.95 per share.
Skye Bank increased by 6k to close at 78k and Nigerian Breweries also appreciated by 6k to close at N135.10 per share.
NEM Insurance drove the volume of shares with an exchange of 93.34 million shares worth N93.34 million.
It was trailed by United Bank for Africa (UBA), accounting for 40.74 million shares valued at N185.51 million and Skye Bank traded 35.95 million worth N28.02 million.
Transcorp sold 25.49 million shares valued at N36.46 million and FBN Holdings 18.03 million worth N63.06 million.
In all, a total of 309.72 million shares valued at N2.08 billion were exchanged by investors in 3,934 deals compared with the 242 million shares worth N1.56 billion transacted in 3,684 deals on Tuesday.
Story by David Oputah
