– Naira Depreciates To N397.63/USD On I&E FX Window
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) extended Wednesday’s bearish trend to Thursday, February 4, posting a loss of N112.05 billion due mainly to the absence of significant activities in the major and large stocks.
Market capitalization closed N21.86 trillion down from N21.97 trillion recorded in the previous day’s trading while NSE-ASI dropped -0.51 per cent, closing 41,785.80 basis points (bspts) as against 42,000,01 bspts.
Market Year-to-Date (YTD) returns stand at +3.76 per cent.
Data from the NSE post-trading report showed that a total of 629,538,127 shares were traded in 4,759deals, with a market value of N7,980,851,016.75.
Compared with the previous trading day’s figures, Thursday’s activities show 25 per cent improvement in volume and 50 per cent increase in turnover, but 19 per cent decline in deals.
There were 22 gainers and 25 losers as against 19 gainers and 27 losers in Wednesday’s trading.
Top on the gainers’ chart are African Alliance Insurance (+10 per cent), Guinea Insurance (+10 per cent), McNicholas (+9.84 per cent) and Wapic Insurance (+9.28 per cent).
Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (-9.94 per cent), Champion Breweries (-9.73%), Linkage Assurance (-9.59 per cent) and FTN Cocoa Processors (-9.43 per cent), topped the losers’ table.
FBN recorded the highest volume of 126.3 million traded shares, followed by Guaranty Trust Bank with 87.21 million, Union Bank of Nigeria 78.44 million and FCMB which recorded 66.49 million.
At the Forex market, Naira depreciated against the dollar with N2.31 or 0.53 per cent to close at N397.63/USD at the I&E FX Window, as against N395.50/USD in the previous day’s trading, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange website.
CBN official rate stands at N379/USD.
About the Author
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
