Business
NSE Market Capitalisation Sheds N239bn
Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained a negative trend, with the market capitalisation shedding N239 billion, mixed sentiments ahead of the end of the year with window dressing by fund managers.
Reports says that the market capitalisation, which opened at N11.576 trillion lost N239 billion or 2.07 per cent to close at N11.337 trillion.
Also, the All-Share Index lost 654.91 or 2.07 per cent to close at 31,037.72 compared with 31,692.63 achieved last Thursday.
Nestle recorded the highest loss to lead the laggards’ table, shedding N137.10 to close at N1,480 per share.
Seplat Petroleum Development Plc trailed with a loss of N50.40 to close at N592.50, while Dangote Cement depreciated by N4.70 to close at N183 per share.
Forte Oil dipped N2.50 to close at N31.85, while UACN went down by N1.05 to close at N9.75 per share.
On the other hand, Stanbic IBTC led the gainers’ table during the day, gaining N2.65 to close at N53.25 per share.
Presco followed with a gain of N1.85 to close at N64, while Flour Mills gained 85k to close at N21.95 per share.
Berger Paint added 75k to close at N8.60, while Mobil increased 70k to close at N185.50 per share.
The Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., Mr Ambrose Omordion, said that trading ended in yet another volatile session laced with profit taking.
Omordion said that the oscillating trend would likely continue into 2019, following wealth economic fundamentals with oil benchmark trading below the Federal Government 2018 and 2019 budget benchmark.
An analysis of the activity chart shows that investors bought and sold 1.96 billion worth N6.54 billion in 4,080 deals.
This was against the 452.26 million shares valued at N2.61 billion exchanged in 3,520 deals.
NEM Insurance led the activity chart emerging as the most active stock, exchanging 909.55 million shares worth N3.01 billion.
Wema Bank followed with an account of 657.28 million shares valued at N335.83 million, while NAHCO sold 98.54 million shares worth N413.24million.
Medview Air traded 76.09 million shares valued at N152.18 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 39.61 million shares worth N913.71 million.
Business
Kenyan Runners Dominate Berlin Marathons
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.