By Francis Akinnodi

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The volume of stocks traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 1.12 billion units at the close of business yesterday amid bearish sentiments.
Analysts and traders had expected the equities market to sustain its bullish performance recorded on last week due to its peers hitting double figures on account of the new change of leadership with Joe Biden as the new President of the United States.
However, the All Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.12 per cent to close at 41,099.15 points while market capitalisation dropped N25 billion to close at N21.499 trillion.
The Hope analysis revealed that the downturn was caused by declines in highly capitalised stocks such as Dangote Cement, Mansard, Transcorp, UBA and MTN.
The volume of stocks traded yesterday stood at 1.12 billion units while the value of stocks traded stood at N6.39 billion, exchanged in 7,404 deals. This is in contrast to 649.64 million units and N4.61 billion, exchanged in 6,296 deals in the previous trading session.
Reacting to the performance of the market, analysts say they expect to see some form of cautious buying, amid stringent capital controls set in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which, in turn, could trigger lower foreign portfolio participation in the long term, while adding that the market could close the week in the negative territory.
Meanwhile, investors’ appetite for equities weakened as 50 stocks depreciated in value while 20 others appreciated.
Chams topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.27 kobo per share, Prestige followed with 10 per cent to close at 0.54 kobo, Tourist dropped 9.84 per cent to close at N2.84, MRS fell by 9.82 per cent to close at N12.40 while Mansard decreased by 9.80 per cent to close at N1.38.
On the other hand, Multiverse topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo per share due to the company’s projected revenue of N76 million and a profit of N39.5 million in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021.