By Dipo Olowookere
The All-Share Index (ASI) of equities on the trading platform of Africa’s largest economy depreciated to its lowest level in 5 weeks on Monday after closing below the 28,000 psychological mark.
Business Post reports that the benchmark indicator went down yesterday by 294.90 points to settle at 27,772.19 points in contrast to the previous session’s 28,067.09 points.
The last time the ASI was in the 27,000 region was on January 7, 2020, when it ended at 27,586.93 points and moved to 28,562.48 points the next day after growing by 3.54 percent.
It was observed that the market lost 1.05 percent during Monday’s session on the back of sustained profit-taking majorly in the consumer goods space, which crashed the sector by 4.75 percent. The banking index depreciated by 0.54 percent, while the energy sector fell by 0.55 percent.
The strong performances of the insurance space, which rose by 0.86 percent and the industrial goods sector, which appreciated by 0.76 percent were not enough to lift the market.
The losses printed by the earlier mentioned three sectors reduced the market capitalisation yesterday by N154 billion to N14.464 trillion from N14.618 trillion.
The activity level was weak on Monday as the volume of transactions decreased by 34.14 percent to 200.2 million from 303.9 million, while the value of trades dropped 69.89 percent to N1.9 billion from N6.4 billion, with the number of deals crashing by 17.82 percent to 3,487 deals from 4,243 deals.
Business Post reports that the market breadth ended at equilibrium yesterday with 17 price gainers and 17 price losers, with Nestle Nigeria emerging as the heaviest price decliner as its stocks went down by N138 to finish at N1242 per unit.
MTN Nigeria lost N2 to close at N115 per share, Lafarge Africa depreciated by 25 kobo to settle at N15.05 per unit, GTBank depleted by 20 kobo to trade at N29.30 per share, while FBN Holdings decreased by 20 kobo to sell at N5.85 per unit.
On the gainers’ side, BUA Cement took charge with a price appreciation of 60 kobo to sell at N36 per share, while UPDC REIT rose by 20 kobo to close at N3.40 per unit.
NPF Microfinance Bank appreciated by 11 kobo to end at N1.23 per unit, Africa Prudential grew by 10 kobo to trade at N4.60 per share, while Law Union and Rock Insurance gained 9 kobo to trade at N1.20 per unit.
