Print. 
The price slide that commenced Friday, January 4, 2008, continued today as many more stocks shed weight, forcing down the all-share index by a significant 1.11%. The losses were market-wide, touching virtually all sectors. After a stretch of upward price direction, many investors would have found wisdom in some profit-taking and moved to sell. Though a sizeable number of stocks gained in price, more, in number and total Naira value, were on the losing side.
Top of the pack in the loss spree was ETI, which shed N6.00. OANDO was back in the red with a N5.15 loss, just as MOBIL, WAPCO, UACN and CAP went down N5.00, N4.12, N2.01 and N2.00 respectively. In all, some 62 stocks ended lower on a day that also saw a decline in the market capitalisation (-1.11%) and total transaction value (-4.37) over the previous day. AP has continued to power up as there appears to be no let-up in the mop-up process, driving the price up N10.95 in today's trade. It closed N229.96, sustaining an outstanding price run that started mainly in the second quarter of 2007 from below N50. TOTAL, NESTLE and GUINNESS were also up N8.90, N2.00 and N1.99 respectively. Some other forty stocks picked gains, though generally more subdued than the losses. See the full chart of price movements here.
Banking continued to dominate trade value, taking nine out of the top ten spots. In volume turnover (units), insurance companies showed strength again, with Equity Assurance leading the day and Staco and Oasis positioning in the top ten. Banking and insurance have continued to dominate trades, as investors appear to find more attraction in the financial sector stocks.
Quarterly results were announced by UBA (Q1 to 31/12/07), Zenith Bank (Q2 to 31/12/07), Oceanic Bank (Q1 to 31/12/07) and Evans Medical (Q3 to 30/9/07). Oceanic Bank showed excellent growth in turnover (140.39%), PBT (160.05%)and PAT (152.84%) over same period previous year. If that trend is sustained in the coming quarters, it would be an outstanding year for the bank. UBA was also strong with comparative growth rates of 76.38%, 100.66% and 103.60%. Zenith was less impressive, putting up a turnover growth of just 20% while PBT and PAT improved to 56.89% and 65.89% respectively. Perhaps symbolising the continued operational challenges of the manufacturing sector, Evans Medical was more in reverse direction, with loss before and after tax of 93.43% and 90.34% respectively. It managed to achieve a turnover growth of just 4.35%.
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