Just as Investdata had warned in the past few days, the imminent market correction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) set in after five consecutive daily gains that saw the index glide above its year open, just as market capitalization surpassed its historical best attained on March 5, 2007, just before the years of the locust set in.
As at 1.45pm Friday, the All-Share index was down to 30,931.63 basis points, or 1.73%, gravitating to the pull by Dangote Cement, the exchange’s biggest stock by market capitalization, which was down N11.00 or 5.37%; followed by MTN Nigeria Communications, the second biggest, which had lost N4 at the time of reporting, representing 2.68% decline, the first since it was listed on Thursday, May 16, 2019.
They were trailed by Nigerian Breweries’ N3.70 or 6% slide; while Unilever Nigeria shed 100 kobo, or 3.13%, ahead of the 40 kobo or 2.78% by Flour Mills of Nigeria. By 2.05pm however, Stanbic IBTC Holdings was down N1.85 kobo or 4.2%.
The decline in the NSE All-Share index could have been more significant, but for gains by Nestle Nigeria, the third most capitalized stock on the exchange, as well as Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and Dangote Flour.
Nestle notched N35 or 2.56% up; ahead of ETI’s 90 kobo or 9.84%; while Guaranty Trust, Zenith and Dangote Flour had gained 45 kobo or 1.45%, 20 kobo or 1.06% and 15 kobo or 0.94% at the time of reporting. Also, Oando was up 15 kobo or 3.45%.
Traders had crossed 177.7m shares valued at N3.761bn in 3,391 deals, while equity capitalization stood at N13.623tr.