By Dipo Olowookere
The downward trend witnessed lately at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited remained on Thursday after the key performance indicators further went down by 0.09 per cent.
Profit-taking in the banking sector was mainly the reason the domestic stock market fell yesterday, as investor rebalanced their portfolios and looked forward to next week when the inflation numbers will be released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The banking index depreciated during the session by 1.35 per cent, the consumer goods sector lost 0.10 per cent, and the industrial goods counter went down by 0.01 per cent, while the energy sector grew by 1.34 per cent and the insurance space increased by 0.18 per cent.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased on Thursday by 47.82 points to 52,161.24 points from 52,209.06 points, while the market capitalisation depleted by N26 billion to N28.402 trillion from N28.428 trillion.
A total of 477.4 million stocks worth N5.2 billion were traded by investors yesterday in 5,539 deals compared with the 554.3 million stocks worth N6.0 billion traded in 5,168 deals on Wednesday, indicating an increase in the number of deals by 7.18 per cent, a decline in the trading volume and value by 13.87 per cent and 13.33 per cent apiece.
Access Holdings was the most actively traded stock with a turnover of 169.3 million units valued at N1.7 billion, UBA traded 102.1 million units worth N819.3 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 30.8 million units for N179.7 million, GTCO sold 30.4 million units valued at N730.9 million, and Zenith Bank traded 16.8 million units worth N404.4 million.
Investor sentiment remained strong amid the troubles as the market breadth closed positive with 22 price gainers and 20 price losers led by FCMB, which dwindled by 5.66 per cent to N4.00.
Access Holdings depreciated by 3.77 per cent to N10.20, Sterling Bank shrank by 3.53 per cent to N1.64, Neimeth declined by 3.33 per cent to N1.45, and Royal Exchange slumped by 3.33 per cent to 58 Kobo.
On the flip side, Ardova topped the advancers’ log after its price rose by 10.00 per cent to N24.20, NCR Nigeria improved by 9.87 per cent to N2.56, Multiverse also gained 9.87 per cent to end at N4.12, MRS Oil jumped by 9.84 per cent to N30.70, and CWG moved up by 9.77 per cent to N1.91.
