By Dipo Olowookere
Despite witnessing a positive investor sentiment, the Nigerian equities market closed flat on Tuesday, with the key performance indicators almost remaining unchanged at the close of transactions.
The All-Share Index (ASI) was marginally higher by 1.54 points to 47,064.82 points from 47,063.28 points, while the market capitalisation was slightly up by N1 billion to N25.362 trillion from N25.361 trillion.
Business Post reports that the banking and industrial goods counters were down during the session by 1.01 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively, while the insurance, energy and consumer goods sectors were up by 1.51 per cent, 0.26 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
It was observed that there were 28 price gainers and 21 price losers on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited yesterday, indicating a positive market breadth.
The best-performing stock was Learn Africa, which rose by 9.70 per cent to N1.81, Morison Industries appreciated by 9.55 per cent to N2.18, RT Briscoe grew by 9.52 per cent to 46 kobo, Veritas Kapital increased by 9.52 per cent to 23 kobo, while NASCON gained 9.43 per cent to sell for N14.50.
As for the worst-performing stock, it was Berger Paints due to the 9.58 per cent loss it suffered to close at N7.55 and was trailed by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance with a 4.62 per cent decline to 62 kobo.
Jaiz Bank went down by 4.29 per cent to 67 kobo, International Breweries depreciated by 2.86 per cent to N5.10, while Ecobank decreased by 2.80 per cent to trade at N12.15.
Access Bank was the most traded stock on Tuesday with the sale of 55.4 million units for N576.5 million, followed by Guinness Nigeria with the sale of 16.7 million units for N1.2 billion.
Japaul transacted 14.0 million stocks worth N5.1 million, Sterling Bank exchanged 13.3 million shares valued at N22.6 million, while eTranzact traded 13.1 million equities valued at N26.2 million.
At the close of business, investors traded a total of 274.2 million shares worth N3.8 billion in 5,331 deals in contrast to the 338.0 million shares worth N5.7 billion transacted on Monday in 5,619 deals, implying that the trading volume, value and the number of deals depreciated by 18.88 per cent, 32.74 per cent and 5.13 per cent respectively.
Adedapo Adesanya