Forte, Beta Glass, Ikeja Hotel, others gain

Equity investors sentiment at Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained low yesterday evidenced in a decline of 0.88 percent which the NSE All Share Index (ASI) recorded yesterday.
In addition to negative impact of recent oil price decline on investment in Nigerian equities, retail investors are beginning to off-load shares for cash preparatory to the Yuletide spending.
As the closing bell rang yesterday, Forte Oil plc, Beta Glass plc, Ikeja Hotel plc respectively led on the gainers table of 15 stocks against 34 equities that lost their values.
Forte Oil plc share price rose from N207.58 to N216.9, after adding N9.32; followed by Beta Glass plc which rallied from N24 to N25.2, adding N1.2. The share price of Ikeja Hotel plc rose from N3.81 to N4, adding N0.19.
On the losers chart, Seplat Petroleum Development Company plc was worst hit by the sell off as it lost N29.83 from the value of its share at the time trading opened.
The share price dropped from N324.83 to N295. Also, the share price of Guinness Nigeria plc dropped from N122.61 to N117, down by N5.6; Flour Mill Nigeria plc share price dipped from N43.73 to N39.49, down by N4.24, Nigerian Breweries plc dropped from a high of N145.59 to N143.5, after losing N2.09; followed by that of UACN plc which lost N1.9, from N38 to N36.1.
Following the 0.88 percent decline recorded yesterday by the NSE ASI and market capitalization, the year-to-date (YtD) return stood lower at -26.22 percent.
The All Share Index closed at 30,492.30 points against the preceding trading day’s 30,763.38 points while market capitalisation lost N89billion to close at N10.067 trillion against the preceding trading day’s N10.156 trillion.
Also, volume of stocks traded dropped by 4.60 percent from 390.609 million to 372.642 million, while the total value of stock traded decreased by 35.81 percent from N4.679 billion the preceding trading day to N3.003 billion in 4,179 deals yesterday.
Actively traded stocks at the local bourse included that of FBN Holdings plc, NEM Insurance plc, FCMB Group, Zenith Bank plc and United Bank for Africa plc.