Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday ended on panic mood, as the country recorded the first Coronavirus case after Egypt and Algeria.
The panic mood affected trading on the exchange with the market recording only two gainers against 41 losers.
Consequently, the market capitalisation lost N308 billion, representing a loss of 2.21 per cent in about six hours to close at N13.657 trillion against N13.965 trillion on Thursday.
Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 26,808.24 shed 591.78 points or 2.21 per cent to close at 26,216.46.
Commenting on the development, Mr Ambrose Omordion, Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., said the Coronavirus news heightened the negative sentiment already in the market.
Omordion stated that the news further affected the performances of the domestic equities which had been battling with liquidity issue.
“The news of coronavirus entering the country has further dampened investors confidence in the stock market as reflected in the global markets that are bleeding badly as a result of selloffs.
“There is already fear of global recession due to the virus,” he said.
He noted that market players expected government at all levels to be proactive in tackling the virus to avoid further spread to other parts of the country.
Omordion said the issue should be contained the way the previous administration fought Ebola, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others continued to look for solutions to put an end to the virus.
But, we at InvestData anticipated that recovering was underway because it is a global problem.
“The market and economy of China where it started is already recovering as over 35,000 people have been discharged from the hospital.
“And Chinese government has intensified efforts to check the virus and they have injected funds to the economy to stimulate economic productivity,” Omordion said.
Presco recorded the highest loss to lead the losers’ table, dropping by N4.95 to close at N44.90 per share.
Nigerian Breweries trailed with N4.50 to close at N40.50, while Stanbic IBTC dipped N3.60 to close at N32.50 per share.
Guaranty Trust Bank declined by N2.60 to close at N23.80, while MTN Nigeria was down by N2.10 to close at N110 per share.
On the other hand, Flour Mills led the gainers’ table with N1 to close at N22 while Vitafoam improved by 24k to close at N4.32 per share.
Investors traded 416.30 million shares valued N6.19 billion in 5,220 deals.
This was in contrast with 231.53 million shares worth N4.48 billion transacted in 3,606 deals on Thursday.
Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock, trading 96.01 million shares valued N2.29 billion.
It was trailed by United Bank for Africa (UBA) with an account of 49.51 million shares worth N318.78 million, while Zenith Bank traded 45.56 million shares valued N827.88 million.
United Capital sold 32.94 million shares worth N105.15 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 32.91 million shares valued N155.89 million. (NAN)
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