By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed a 0.52 per cent contraction on Thursday for the first time this week following sell-off activities in the insurance sector.
This moderated the All-Share Index (ASI) by 234.60 points to 44,625.18 points from 44,859.78 points and eased the market capitalisation by N128 billion to N24.306 trillion from N24.434 trillion.
The market breadth ended positive yesterday despite the bearish outcome, as there were 12 price gainers and nine price losers, indicating a strong investor sentiment.
Analysis of the sectorial performance showed that the insurance index was the black sheep during the session, as it went down by 0.98 per cent.
The banking sector had a good outing yesterday as it appreciated by 1.11 per cent, while the consumer goods index closed marginally higher by 0.01 per cent. The energy and industrial goods counters closed flat at the close of trade yesterday.
Pharma-Deko was the worst-performing equity on Thursday as its value went down by 9.76 per cent to N1.85. Linkage Assurance depreciated by 9.30 per cent to 39 Kobo, Coronation Insurance shrank by 8.33 per cent to 33 Kobo, ABC Transport retreated by 7.41 per cent to 27 Kobo, as AIICO Insurance receded by 3.45 per cent to 56 Kobo.
On the flip side, Regency Assurance ended the trading session as the best-performing stock as its price appreciated by 8.70 per cent to 25 Kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 8.00 per cent to 27 Kobo, Japaul grew by 7.41 per cent to 29 Kobo, Cornerstone Insurance chalked up 4.17 per cent to trade at 50 Kobo, and UAC Nigeria increased by 4.07 per cent to N8.95.
Business Post reports that Mutual Benefits finished the trading day as the busiest stock after trading 47.9 million units of its equities. Pharma-Deko sold 22.6 million shares, Transcorp exchanged 9.0 million stocks, Fidelity Bank transacted 7.9 million equities, and Access Holdings traded 7.0 million shares.
Data revealed that yesterday, traders transacted 151.0 million equities worth N1.6 billion in 2,998 deals as against the 93.5 million shares worth N3.4 billion traded in 3,187 deals on Wednesday, signifying an increase in the trading volume by 61.44 per cent, a decline in the trading value by 54.07 per cent, and a fall in the number of deals by 5.93 per cent.