Profit-Takers Halt Local Stock Market’s Winning Streak With 0.35% Loss

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited could not stretch its gains to five consecutive trading days on Wednesday after it suffered a 0.35 per cent loss.

The winning streak was halted at the midweek session by profit-takers, who felt it was time to sell off some equities that have fetched them some yields in the past trading sessions.

This was reflected in the sectorial performance yesterday as all the key sectors of the bourse finished in the red zone, with the insurance counter shedding 1.13 per cent.

Further, the banking space went down by 0.89 per cent, the energy index depreciated by 0.66 per cent, the consumer goods sector slumped by 0.24 per cent, and the industrial goods sector declined by 0.02 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 336.26 points to close at 96,537.48 points compared with the previous day’s 96,873.74 points and the market capitalisation dwindled by N193 billion to quote at N55.454 trillion versus Tuesday’s closing value of N55.647 trillion.

It was a weak investor sentiment on Wednesday after the stock exchange ended with 21 price gainers and 33 price losers, implying a negative market breadth index.

Oando crashed by 10.00 per cent yesterday to sell for N81.90, The Initiates lost 9.95 per cent to trade at N1.81, RT Briscoe depleted by 9.72 per cent to N2.60, Secure Electronic Technology fell by 9.23 per cent to 59 Kobo, and Omatek dropped 9.09 per cent to 70 Kobo.

On the flip side, DAAR Communications gained 10.00 per cent to close at 66 Kobo, Industrial and Medical Gases expanded by 9.72 per cent to N35.00, Deap Capital improved by 9.52 per cent to N1.15, Tantalizers rose by 8.47 per cent to 64 Kobo, and Caverton jumped by 6.82 per cent to N1.41.

Business Post reports that the level of activity was lower than the preceding session, with the trading volume, value and the number of deals going down by 17.72 per cent, 21.15 per cent, and 3.93 per cent, respectively.

This was because traders transacted 389.2 million stocks worth N8.2 billion in 12,039 deals compared with the 473.0 million stocks valued at N10.4 billion traded in 12,532 deals a day earlier.

Oando was the busiest equity for the session with a turnover of 37.2 million units valued at N3.1 billion, Universal Insurance traded 33.7 million units for N12.7 million, Transcorp exchanged 29.0 million units valued at N321.8 million, FTN Cocoa transacted 22.7 million units worth N35.1 million, and GTCO sold 22.0 million units for N1.0 billion.