Trading for the month of April on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed marginally red, as the composite All-Share index fell 0.57% to close the month of April at 41,268.01bps on Monday, after losses by blue-chip stocks led by Dangote Cement and Nigerian Breweries, as well as banking stocks, among. Market capitalization was slightly better, as it lost N44.45bn or 0.29%, reflecting the impact of new listings during the month.
The NSE industrial sector lost all of 5.21%; followed by its insurance peer’s 3.57%; while ASeM shed 3.04%; ahead of the 0.38% by the Lotus Islamic index; 0.26% by the NSE50; and 0.16% by the banking index.
These weakened the impact of the impressive 4.92% gain by the oil and gas index, led by integrated energy giant- Oando Plc’s 52.75% impressive recovery; as well as the 2.74% notch by the consumer goods index; or 1.2% rise in the pension index; or 0.1% by the NSE30.
Mutual Benefit Insurance suffered a 29.41% setback; followed UACN Property Development Company’s 21.9%. Japaul Oil Services and Unity Bank, two companies which were involved in the widely reported plans by U.S-based investment group- Milost Global to invest in some Nigerian firms, which also included Aso Savings and Loans until it was called off after with went sour. Share prices of Japaul and Unity Bank lost 18.64% and 18.03% respectively.
For the month of April also, Dangote Flour Mills’ share price fell 16.61%; ahead of the 16.05% loss by NPF Microfinance Bank; Wema Bank shed 15.15%, in apparent investors’ displeasure with the Q1 performance score-cards of these companies, among others. Livestock Feeds followed with a 14.44% loss; Jaiz Bank, 13.58%; Continental Insurance, 12.85%; Courtville Business Solution shed 12.5%; Equity Assurance lost 12.12%; Niger Insurance, 11.76%; and C&I Leasing, 11.63%.
Other stocks on the decliners side for the month were Total Nigeria, which shed 10.76%; Cadbury Nigeria, 8.61%; Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, 8.11%; Flour Mills, 7.51%; Lafarge Africa, 7.28%; Zenith Bank, 6.31%; Dangote Sugar Refinery, 5.96%; Double One, 5.92%; Eterna, 5.71%; Dangote Cement, 5.38%; Fidelity Bank, 4.85%; and Nascon Allied, 3.57%.
Following Oando on the gainers’ side for the month of April was book publishers- Learn Africa, which lost 39.18%; Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, 22.94%; AIICO, 16.13%; Nestle Nigeria chalked 15.87%; and Seplat Petroleum Development Company, 15.02%. Prestige Assurance closed 13.33% green, just as peer- UNIC Diversified, 11.11%; Northern Nigeria Flour Mills, 9.6%; Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, 9.36%; Lasaco Assurance closed 9.09% up; among others.