By Dipo Olowookere
The bears made a quick return to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited after leaving the stage for the bulls for a day as investors reassessed the impact of the hike in the benchmark interest rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday on their investments.
On Friday, the key performance indicators of the bourse closed lower by 1.23 per cent as a result of renewed selling pressure, especially in the energy and industrial goods sectors.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions on the first trading session of March 2024, the industrial goods index was down by 3.44 per cent and the energy space fell by 0.85 per cent.
However, the banking counter maintained its upward trend with a further growth of 2.59 per cent, the insurance index appreciated by 1.12 per cent, and the consumer goods sector improved by 0.38 per cent.
But at the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) shrank by 1,228.32 points to 98,751.98 points from 99,980.30 points and the market capitalisation moderated by N673 billion to N54.035 trillion from N54.708 trillion.
It was observed that despite the disappointing outcome, investor sentiment remained strong as the bourse closed with eight price losers and 47 price gainers, insinuating a positive market breadth index.
The Initiates and FTN Cocoa were the best-performing stocks with a price appreciation of 10.00 per cent each to trade at N1.98 and N1.65, respectively. Juli grew by 9.97 per cent to N3.75, Champion Breweries rose by 9.94 per cent to N3.76, and PZ Cussons surged by 9.93 per cent to N33.75.
Conversely, BUA Cement and Conoil ended the session as the worst-performing shares after they slumped by 10.00 per cent each to trade at N135.00 and N90.90 apiece. MTN Nigeria dropped 9.96 per cent to N200.70, Thomas Wyatt declined by 9.78 per cent to N2.03, and Sovereign Trust Insurance deflated by 6.52 per cent to 43 Kobo.
On the last trading day of the week, investors transacted 367.6 million equities valued at N6.8 billion in 9,168 deals versus the 543.0 million equities worth N8.7 billion traded in 9,650 deals on Thursday, representing a decline in the trading volume, value and the number of deals by 32.30 per cent, 21.84 per cent, and 4.99 per cent, respectively.
Transcorp recorded the highest sales by volume with 57.0 million units valued at N792.1 million, Access Holdings transacted 31.8 million shares worth N667.8 million, UBA exchanged 28.5 million equities for N674.1 million, Fidelity Bank traded 28.1 million stocks valued at N297.7 million, and FCMB sold 27.9 million shares for N227.2 million.
