Investors Sell Off Shares After Sallah Spending as Index Drops 0.32%

By Dipo Olowookere

The bears dominated the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday, causing the market to decline by 0.32 per cent on the first trading session of the week after the Sallah break.

The stock exchange was under lock and key on Monday and Tuesday due to the public holiday declared by the federal government to mark Eid-el Kabir last Saturday.

At the resumption of trading activities yesterday, some investors liquidated equities in their portfolios to recoup the Sallah spending and then restrategize.

This resulted in the market breadth closing negative with 25 depreciating stocks and 11 appreciating stocks led by CWG, which rose by 10.00 per cent to settle at 88 Kobo. Caverton appreciated by 9.84 per cent to N1.34, Academy Press grew by 9.52 per cent to N2.07, RT Briscoe gained 8.82 per cent to sell at 37 Kobo, while International Breweries improved by 7.41 per cent to N5.80.

On the flip side, Multiverse shed 10.00 per cent to trade at N1.89, Red Star Express declined by 9.82 per cent to N2.48, Cutix dropped 8.33 per cent to N2.20, Unity Bank fell by 8.16 per cent to 45 Kobo, while Livestock Feeds crashed by 7.97 per cent to N1.27.

The most active stock on the bourse at the session was GTCO as it sold 51.9 million units valued at N1.1 billion. Japual traded 21.9 million units worth N5.7 million, UBA transacted 19.7 million units for N147.7 million, Jaiz Bank exchanged 12.6 million units worth N11.1 million, while International Breweries traded 9.1 million units worth N52.3 million.

These trades raised the activity level with the volume of shares rising by 72.69 per cent to 198.8 million units from 115.1 million units, the value of stocks growing by 22.65 per cent to N2.2 billion from N1.8 billion and the number of deals increased by 37.08 per cent to 4,769 deals from 3,479 deals.

The consumer goods and the banking counters gained 0.31 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively during the trading day, while the 2.96 per cent, 0.04 per cent and 0.01 per cent losses recorded by insurance, energy and industrial goods respectively weakened the market.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 167.16 points to 51,390.25 points from 51,557.41 points, while the market capitalisation fell by N90 billion to N27.713 trillion from N27.803 trillion.