Tuesday 31 August 2010
- Culled from The PunchThe Nigerian Stock
Exchange‘s All-share Index fell back towards five-months lowest level on
Monday, after two days of gains, down by 53.35 points or 0.22 per cent to
24,221.13 points from 24,274.51, which it opened for the week.Market
capitalisation also fell by N13bn or 0.22 per cent, from N5.94tn to N5.92tn. Blue-chip stocks
led the bears, including household products maker, PZ Cussons, and Nigerian
Breweries Plc, both down by more than four per cent.The drop in
indices, according to some experts, was the fallout of massive sell-offs by
some banks and individuals who took money from banks to buy shares, as the
deadline for banks to reduce their exposure to the capital market to 10 per
cent, expires on Wednesday. According to
Reuters, the South African stocks gained more than one per cent, buoyed by last
week‘s assurance from the United States Federal Reserve that it was ready to do
what was needed to keep the economic recovery from stalling, while stronger
metal prices bolstered miners.The Johannesburg ‘s
blue-chip top-40 index rose by 1.44 per cent, to close at 23,983.11 points and
the broader All-share Index added 1.27 per cent to 27,077.34 points. â€We were not able
to react to the Fed assurance statement on Friday, the reaction is only coming
in this morning,†Martin Lentsoane, a trader at News Trading, says. â€Copper is
up, platinum is up also, so metal prices are giving us a bit of support.â€The US Federal
Reserve Chairman, Mr. Ben Bernanke, said late on Friday that the Fed was ready
to take further steps, if necessary, to spur the economic recovery. Charts also suggest
that the blue-chip index has little downside momentum with its 14-day relative
strength index, or RSI, at around 40, near the oversold mark of 30, while its
slow stochastic index also hovered closer to its oversold mark of 20.