By MICHAEL EBOH &Providence Obuh
The Bearish sentiment that has deflated activities on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained breadth  last week occasioned by incidence of huge sell off by investors and the electioneering process to drag down investment value by N385 billion.

Analysts have said that the sharp change in sentiment could not be isolated from electioneering process as more politicians and interested parties sold-in, to raise funds for myriad of activities.

“The change in sentiments resulted into huge sell-off, which gradually gained momentum to depress market into full negative zone”a  stock broker said.

However, equities value represented by the market capitalisation dropped by 4.72 per cent to close at N7.789 trillion from N8.174 trillion at which it opened. Another key performance indices, the All share index dropped by 4.72 per cent or 1,206.52 bases points to close at 24,378.72 points from 25,585.24 points.

Seventy-two stocks depreciated in price during the week under review  higher than the  47 in the penultimate week. Oando Plc led on the price losers’ table, dropping by N6.97 or 10.90 per cent to close at N57.00 per share, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc followed with a loss of N4.60 or  11.06 per cent to close at N37.00 per share and UAC of Nigeria Plc dipped by N4.45 or 12.43 per cent to close at N31.35 per share.

Other share price losers include: Cadbury Nigeria Plc N2.50, Ashaka Cement Plc N2.30, Dangote Flour Mills Plc N2.14, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc N2.12, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc N1.98, First Bank of Nigeria Plc N1.93, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc N1.80, among others.

Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc led 12 other stocks on the gainers’ table during the week, lower than the  40 of the preceding week with a gain of N3.50 or 4.1 per cent to close at N89.00 per share, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc followed with a gain of N1.41 or 5 per cent to close at N29.65 per share and .Nigerian Breweries Plc garnered N1.36 or 1.84 per cent to close at N75.16 per share.

Other share price gainers’ include: PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc N0.60, Champion Breweries Plc N0.39  Starcomms Plc N0.16, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc N0.15, Ecobank Nigeria Plc N0.09, Poly Products Nigeria Plc N0.08, Nigerian Bags Manufacturing Company Plc N0.08, among others.

A turnover of 1.1 billion shares valued at N9.85 billion in 35,401 deals was recorded as trading declined by 42.40 per cent in the week under review, in contrast to penultimate week’s turnover of 1.911 billion shares valued at N10.2 billion exchanged in 35,515 deals.

The Banking sub-sector was the most active during the week accounting for 60.91 per cent (measured by turnover volume); with 670.65 million shares valued at  N4.73 billion exchanged by investors in 16,343 deals. Volume in the Banking sub-sector was largely driven by activity in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc trading 63.97 million shares valued at N1.22 billion in 2,136 deals, First Bank of Nigeria Plc followed with the exchange of 60.96 million shares valued at N837.39 million in 4,166 deals and FinBank Plc recorded 54.70 million shares valued N40.18 million in 465 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector followed on the sectorial analysis accounting for 10.55 per cent of the market turnover with 116.8 million shares valued at N117.19 million in 1,505 deals.

AIICO Insurance Plc boosted activity in the sub-sector trading 33.92 million shares valued at N34.22 million in 794 deals, Goldlink Insurance Plc, followed with the exchange of 15.23 million shares valued at N8.39 million in 67 deals and NEM Insurance Company Nigeria Plc recorded 12.55 million shares valued at N6.81 million in 155 deals.