Nigerian Stocks Start April Sluggish, Lose 0.04% After Easter Break

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session in April 2024 on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended sluggishly on Tuesday with a marginal 0.04 per cent loss as a result of mild profit-taking by investors.

The majority of the key sectors of the exchange encountered selling pressure during the market day, with the industrial goods index depreciating by 0.12 per cent.

Further, the banking space lost 0.07 per cent, the consumer goods counter went down by 0.01 per cent, and the energy sector closed flat, while the insurance sector gained 1.37 per cent.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 43.92 points to settle at 104,518.14 points compared with last Thursday’s 104,562.06 points, and the market capitalisation shrank by N25 billion to close at N59.096 trillion versus the preceding session’s N59.121 trillion.

Investor sentiment was weak due to the profit-taking on Nigerian stocks yesterday after the bourse finished with 23 price gainers and 17 price losers led by UAC Nigeria, which declined by 9.82 per cent to N12.40.

Julius Berger slumped by 9.17 per cent to N59.95, ABC Transport crashed by 9.09 per cent to 70 Kobo, Universal Insurance dropped 7.69 per cent to 36 Kobo, and UPDC waned by 6.67 per cent to N1.40.

Conversely, May & Baker gained 10.00 per cent to quote at N6.05, Ikeja Hotel improved by 9.95 per cent to N7.07, Chams expanded by 9.90 per cent to N2.11, Unity Bank grew by 9.66 per cent to N2.27, and AIICO Insurance rose by 9.65 per cent to N1.25.

During the trading day, traders traded 528.7 million stocks worth N14.3 billion in 12,747 deals compared with the 623.1 million stocks valued at N17.0 billion transacted last Thursday in 10,257 deals.

This showed that the number of deals executed on Tuesday surged by 24.28 per cent, while the trading volume and value decreased by 15.15 per cent and 15.88 per cent, respectively.

The most active equity for the session was GTCO, which sold 84.7 million units for N4.5 billion, trailed by Access Holdings, which traded 68.9 million units worth N1.7 billion. UBA exchanged 65.5 million units worth N1.8 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 62.6 million units valued at N2.8 billion, and Transcorp traded 27.4 million units worth N383.6 million.

Business Post reports that the NGX did not open for business last Friday and this Monday due to the public holiday observed for the two days to celebrate Easter.