Investors Lose N58bn on Weak Sentiment, Sell-Off

By Dipo Olowookere

It was another bad day on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) on Tuesday as the trading platform further closed bearish by 0.23 per cent amid sustained profit-taking.

The absence of a positive trigger retained the weak investor sentiment as the market closed with 16 appreciating stocks and 28 depreciating stocks led by Conoil and Jaiz Bank, which lost 10.00 per cent each to settle at N23.85 and 72 kobo respectively.

University Press went down by 9.97 per cent to N2.62, NEM Insurance declined by 9.87 per cent to N3.56, while RT Briscoe dropped 9.68 per cent to quote at 56 kobo.

On the flip side, Niger Insurance topped the gainers’ table after its share price rose by 9.52 per cent to 23 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance increased by 8.47 per cent to 64 kobo, Cutix grew by 8.30 per cnt to N2.48, NGX Group gained 6.97 per cent to trade at N22.25, while UPDC appreciated by 5.56 per cent to sell for 95 kobo.

Unity Bank was the most traded stock at the market yesterday, selling 525.3 million units valued at N262.5 million, followed by GTCO, which sold 29.4 million units worth N766.3 million.

UBA transacted 18.0 million shares valued at N151.2 million, Zenith Bank traded 14.3 million stocks worth N383.0 million, while Japaul exchanged 13.2 million equities for N4.6 million.

At the close of trades, investors bought and sold 754.9 million shares valued at N3.6 billion in 4,330 deals as against the 291.9 million shares worth N2.9 billion traded in 4,792 deals, indicating an increase in the trading volume by 158.64 per cent, a growth in the trading value by 27.41 per cent and a decline in the number of deals by 9.64 per cent.

The key sectors of the NGX were awful on Tuesday as they all closed in the negative territory, with the insurance counter losing 2.16 per cent, the consumer goods space declining by 2.15 per cent, the energy sector shedding 0.77 per cent, the industrial goods counter depreciating by 0.12 per cent and the banking sector dropping 0.06 per cent.

The All-Share Index (ASI) on its part lost 108.26 points to close at 47,154.35 points as against the previous day’s 47,262.61 points, while the market capitalisation shed N58 billion to finish at N25.414 trillion in contrast to Monday’s N25.472 trillion.