Bears Invade Stock Exchange, Snatch N51bn from Investors

By Dipo Olowookere

The bears fortified their invasion of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday with a further decline of 0.20 per cent at the close of business.

This weakened the market capitalisation of the exchange by N51 billion to N25.415 trillion from N25.466 trillion and softened the All-Share Index (ASI) by 95.37 points to 47,156.56 points from 47,251.93 points.

Business Post reports that the bulls barely put up a resistance yesterday as the market breadth closed largely negative with 16 price gainers and 29 price losers, indicating a weak investor sentiment.

This was mainly caused by the sustained profit-taking across the sectors of the stock exchange, with the consumer goods counter losing 1.55 per cent, the insurance sector crashing by 1.38 per cent, the energy space depreciating by 1.01 per cent, the banking index shedding 0.38 per cent and the industrial goods counter falling by 0.08 per cent.

Japaul ended the day as the heaviest price decliner, losing 8.82 per cent to sell for 31 kobo, while Champion Breweries depreciated by 8.78 per cent to trade at N1.87.

Oando lost 6.75 per cent yesterday to quote at N4.70, Axa Mansard went down by 6.52 per cent to N2.15, while Regency Assurance depleted by 5.26 per cent to settle at 36 kobo.

On the flip side, NPF Microfinance Bank was the best-performing stock as its value went up by 9.52 per cent to N2.53, followed by FCMB, which gained 7.94 per cent to sell for N3.67.

Prestige Assurance appreciated by 6.52 per cent to 49 kobo, Chams added 4.76 per cent to its share price to trade at 22 kobo, while UAC Nigeria gained 4.74 per cent to sell at N12.15.

During the trading session, Access Bank was the most traded stock, selling 44.2 million units worth N433.3 million and was trailed by UBA, which sold 39.5 million units valued at N304.9 million.

Further, Fidelity Bank exchanged 33.4 million shares for N103.9 million, GTCO transacted 28.3 million equities valued at N737.5 million, while Zenith Bank traded 28.2 million stocks valued at N758.0 million.

At the close of trades, investors bought and sold 303.5 million equities worth N3.9 billion in 4,616 deals compared with the 213.6 million equities worth N2.7 billion transacted in 4,485 deals on Monday, indicating an increase in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 41.20 per cent, 45.87 per cent and 2.92 per cent respectively.