MICHAEL EBOH & PROVIDENCE OBUH
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Tuesday, delisted Albarka Air Plc, NigerCem Plc, Wiggins Teape Nigeria Plc and seven other redundant companies from its Daily Official List.

With this, stocks of the companies will no longer on be traded on the floors of the NSE across the country.
The other companies are: Flexible Packaging Plc, Krabo Nigeria Plc, NewPak Plc, Tropical Petroleum Plc, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, Foremost Diaries Plc and First Capital Investment Plc.

No comment was made by the NSE, as regards the delisting, as at the time of going to press, but Vanguard gathered that the reasons for delisting may be as a result of redundancy and failure of the affected companies to file their quarterly returns and meet up with its post-listing requirement.

Meanwhile, the declining fortune on the Nigerian Stock Exchange continued Tuesday, as the value of listed equities, represented by the Market capitalisation, dipped by N25.98 billion..

In particular, the capitalisation dropped by 0.31 per cent to close at N8.043 trillion from N8.068 trillion at which it opened.

Another key performance indices, the All share index dipped by 0.27 per cent or 69.69 bases points to close at 25,174.24 points from 25,243.93 points.

This is coming on the heels of about N250 billion loss recorded by investors on their investments in the secondary segment of the Nigerian capital market in the last one week.

The continuous decline has been blamed on a number of factors, ranging from the crisis in the Middle East, the forthcoming elections, loss of confidence in the Nigerian capital market, lack of liquidity in the market and apathy of market operators and investors, especially towards the plan by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reduce the number of stockbroking firms in the market.

UTC Nigeria Plc led on the losers table dropping by N0.04 to close at N0.76 per share, African Petroleum Plc followed with a loss of N1.24 to close at N23.70 per share and Afribank Plc dipped by N0.10 to close at N1.93 per share.

Other share price losers include: Aluminum Extrusion Industry Plc N0.58 to close at N11.20 per share, John Holt Plc N0.37, Intercontinental Bank Plc N0.08, Oceanic Bank Plc N0.10, Bank PHB Plc N0.07, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc N0.54, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc N0.22, among others.

On the contrary, Ashaka Cement Plc recorded the most share price gain on the gainers table with a gain of N1.34 to close at N28.22 per share, Vono Product Plc followed with a gain of N0.16 to close at N3.42 per share and Wema Bank Plc garnered N0.07 to close at N1.58 per share.

Other share price gainers include: C and I Leasing Plc N0.06, FTN Cocoa Processors N0.02, Transnational Incorporation Plc N0.02, Law Union and Rocks Plc N0.02, Dangote Flour Mills Plc N0.54, Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc N0.04, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc N0.17, among others.

Despite the declining trend recorded on the market indices, equity trading appreciated by 223.30 per cent as a turnover of 644.76 million shares valued at N2.11 million was recorded in 9,342 deals, compared to the previous day’s turnover of 199.42 million shares valued at N1.46 billion in 5,253 deals.

The Banking sub-sector dominated the other sub-sector on the sectorial analysis accounting for 20 per cent of the market turnover with 128.96 million shares valued at N1.09 billion in 3,203 deals. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc was the most active in the sub-sector trading 16.65 million shares valued at N315.70 million in 497 deals, Zenith Bank Plc followed with the exchange of 18.32 million shares valued at N272.72 million in 450 deals and Oceanic Bank International Nigeria Plc recorded 12.86 million shares valued at N25.99 million in 111 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector trailed on the sectorial analysis accounting for 8.22 per cent of the market turnover with 53.03 million shares valued at N58.93 million in 238 deals. Law Union and Rocks Insurance Plc enjoyed the most patronage in the sub-sector trading 11.49 million shares valued at N6.60 million in 23 deals, Cornerstone Insurance Company Plc followed with the exchange of 9.92 million shares valued at N4.96 million in three deals and Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc recorded 8.09 million shares valued at N12.94 million in four deals.

NSE 30 which measures the performance of blue chips in the market dropped by 0.50 per cent, NSE Banking lost the highest points by 1.04 per cent, NSE Oil & Gas declined by 0.45 per cent, NSE Food & Beverages dipped by 0.31 per cent and NSE Insurance dipped by 0.14 per cent.