It’s a troubling period for Nigerian Stock Exchange as capitalisation dipped to N11.733 trillion from the N13 trillion recorded in the euphoria that greeted the election of a new Nigerian president early last month.

With many Nigerian companies booking declining profits,in the first quarter filing at the exchange, analysts are blaming the same election, saying that the profit decline reflected the effects of the uncertainty and tension suffered by the economy in the run up to the election.

Dangote Cement and a few others,such as Fidelity Bank, First Bank Holdings,Ecobank have largely been able to navigate the storm, but for many others, including Nestle Plc, the most prized stock on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, profits have slumped seriously.

While Dangote Cement booked a 32 per cent jump in PAT from N47.7 billion to N68 billion in the first quarter this year, with revenue also increasing from N103 billion to N114.7 billion, Nestle in its first quarter filing at the NSE said pretax profit fell 50.7 percent to 3.48 billion naira ($17.5 million) from a year ago.

The food and beverage maker said revenue fell to 27.55 billion naira for the three months to end-March from 33.42 billion a year earlier.

Fuel marketer Total Nigeria also said today that first quarter pre-tax profit fell 63.4 percent to 625.53 million naira ($3.14 million), from 1.71 billion naira same period last year.

Turnover declined marginally to 60.04 billion naira, compared with 60.57 billion naira a year ago, the company said in a statement without giving reason for the fall in earnings.

Mobil, another major oil marketer saw profit plummeting 56 per cent, from a revenue of N22.4 billion, tanking at N16.4 billion. Profit before tax last year in first quarter was N4.74billion. This year, it fell to N2.066billion.

MRS, another oil marketer actually logged a PBT loss of N734million as against a profit of N324 million in the same period last year. With tax computation, net profit for the company has been estimated at N919 million, as against a healthier N172 million a year ago. In percentage terms, the reversal of fortune is 634 per cent.

Seplat, which is engaged in oil exploration also saw profit declined by about 50 per cent, from N7.2 billion to N4.8 billion. Earnings by shareholders during the period fell from N18.80 to N8.80.

Lafarge WAPCO and its yet to be fully swallowed subsidiary, Ashaka Cement also recorded profit declines, unable to match Dangote cement’s performance.

Although Lafarge revenue increased from N56 billion from N49 billion last year, its profit took a big knock as cost of sales jumped from N31billion to N37 billion, leading to a PBT of N8.8billion, from its splendid N12,8billion position last year.

Ashaka’s first quarter revenue also fell to N4.5billion, from N6.5 billion last year. Its profit dive was about 50 per cent, from N3.1billion to N1.6 billion.

Conglomerates such as UACN and Transcorp Plc saw profits shrank.Although Transcorp revenue increased from N3.09 billion to N3.2 billion, PAT shrank from N790million to N748million. UACN said its profit fell from N2.6.8billion to N2.3billion, with revenue also falling to N17.7 billion, from N19.8 billion.

Construction giant, Julius Berger reported a shrinking revenue from N47 billion to N43 billion. Profit fell from N1.4 billion to N1.03 billion.

GlaxoSmithkline also booked over 50 per cent fall in first quarter profit, from N615 million last year, N295 million this year. Revenue fell from N7.8billion to N7.4 billion in the same period.

Another player in the health sector, Pharma Deko, however, cheered its shareholders, with both profit and revenue increasing for the period. revenue increased from N305 million last year to N316 million this year. Profit before tax increased from N16.39 million to N19.4 million. May be being small is better!.

PRESCO plc, which deals with agriculture saw marginal revenue growth from N2.108 billion to N2.153 billion turned into very positive territory by a great reduction in cost of sales. PBT therefpre increased from N595million to N859 million for the period.

In the banking sector, the pan African bank, ECOBANK has so far provided the most cheering news for its investors with revenue rising from N86.3 billion to N104 billion. PDT also jumped N19.2 billion to N30 billion and PAT logged increased to N14.9billion to N24.4 billion. The smaller Fidelity bank announced a jump in revenue from N30.9 billion to N34 billion. PBT was N4.7billion, from N4.45 billion a year ago.