Selling Pressure Further Tightens Bears’ Grip on Customs Street by 0.29%

By Dipo Olowookere

Customs Street further succumbed to selling pressure on Friday, shedding 0.29 per cent at the close of trading activities, as bears refuse to retreat.

Yesterday’s poor outcome made it the ninth consecutive session the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed lower.

Data indicated that the industrial goods space remained flat, while the consumer goods sector gained 0.06 per cent, which was not enough to lift the local bourse.

This was because the insurance counter depreciated by 1.48 per cent, the banking index depleted by 1.21 per cent, and the energy segment marginally lost 0.01 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) gave up 686.64 points to settle at 239,351.16 points compared with the previous day’s 240,037.80 points, and the market capitalisation contracted by N444 billion to N154.534 trillion from N154.978 trillion.

The worst-performing equity was International Energy Insurance, which shed 10.00 per cent to trade at N3.87, Omatek lost 9.55 per cent to quote at N1.42, McNichols declined by 6.73 per cent to N4.85, UPDC crashed by 5.63 per cent to N3.35, and Coronation Insurance slipped by 5.45 per cent to N2.08.

The best-performing equity was RT Briscoe, which gained 9.63 per cent to close at N11.95, Fortis Global Insurance rose by 8.11 per cent to N2.00, Trans-Nationwide Express increased by 7.84 per cent to N3.30, Meyer grew by 5.98 per cent to N15.95, and Aradel went up by 5.71 per cent to N1,374.20.

A total of 22 stocks closed higher during the session, while 26 stocks closed lower, implying a negative market breadth index and bearish investor sentiment.

Business Post reports that market participants bought and sold 416.7 million shares for N35.6 billion in 36,324 deals on the final session of the week versus the 2.9 billion shares worth N34.0 billion transacted in 34,725 deals a day earlier. This showed that while the trading volume decreased by 85.63 per cent, the trading value and number of deals improved by 4.71 per cent and 4.61 per cent, respectively.

Sterling Holdings ended the activity chart with a turnover of 47.8 million units worth N358.7 million, NGX Group transacted 36.8 million units valued at N4.6 billion, First Holdco sold 32.5 million units for N4.2 billion, Access Holdings traded 22.9 million units valued at N616.8 million, and UBA exchanged 19.7 million units worth N885.5 million.