Nigerian equity market dips 0.45% on Eid-el-Fitri eve

The Nigerian stock market closed for the Eid-el-Fitri holidays on a bearish note, declining 0.45 per cent  on Monday.
The federal government has declared Tuesday and Wednesday holiday to celebrate Eid-el-Fitri (end of Muslims month of fast).
The All Share Index (ASI) was lower by 141.08 points, representing 0.45 per cent decline to close at 30,928.29, the market capitalisation dipped by N62 billion, also representing 0.45 per cent drop to close at N13.622 trillion.
Seplat Petroleum Development Company (Seplat), Julius Berger and NASCON, and other medium and largest capitalized stocks were instrumental for the decline.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said that “In line with our expectation, we experienced some sell-offs in yesterday’s trading session.
“Our outlook remains bearish in the near term, though we do not rule out the possibility of bargain hunting in fundamentally sound stocks.”
Market breadth was negative with 15 gainers against 28 losers.
Champion Breweries recorded the highest price gain of 9.90 per cent to close at N1.11.
It was followed by University Press with a gain of 9.44 per cent, to close at N1.97, while Academy Press rose by eight per cent to close at 27k per share.
Sterling Bank and Jaiz Bank appreciated by 4.35 per cent each to close at N2.40 and 48k, per share respectively.
On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria led the losers’ chart dropping by 10 per cent, to close at N7.65 per share.
ETI followed with a decline of 9.87 per cent to close at N10.05, while Julius Berger dipped 9.84 per cent to close at N19.70 per share.
Oando following its battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission declined by 9.52 per cent to close at N3.80, while Vitafoam was down by 9.41 per cent, to close at N3.85, per share.
Meanwhile, the total volume traded went up by 15.5 per cent to 246.09 million shares valued at N2.82 billion, and exchanged in 3,850 deals.
This was in contrast with a total of 212.94 million shares worth N2.73 billion traded in 3,737 deals on Friday.
FCMB Group traded with 70.56 million shares valued at N112.98 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank followed with an exchange of 33.99 million shares worth N1.07 billion, while Oando traded 27.15 million shares valued at N103.27 billion.
UACN sold 24.33 million shares worth N157.16 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 8.84 million shares worth N178.54 million.