By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) tucked in Customs Street, Lagos closed bearish on Wednesday.
It was observed that the market closed marginally lower at the midweek trading session by 0.07 per cent on the back of sustained profit-taking.
Business Post reports that the losses printed by industrial goods (-0.80 per cent), banking (-0.24 per cent) and consumer goods (-0.07 per cent) sectors outweighed the 1.92 per cent growth by the insurance and the 0.20 per cent increase by the energy counters.
When trading activities were rounded up for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) further went down by 29.03 points to 40,465.32 points from 40,494.35 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N15 billion to N21.169 trillion from N21.184 trillion.
The negative investor sentiment seen at the market lately continued yesterday as a total of 22 stocks closed in red as against the 18 stocks that finished in the green zone.
Beta Glass ended the session as the worst-performing stock with a price depreciation of 9.75 per cent to settle at N50 per unit and was trailed by Japaul, which dropped 8.86 per cent to finish at 72 kobo per share.
Fidson declined by 8.55 per cent to trade at N5.35 per share, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) reduced by 7.89 per cent to quote at 35 kobo per unit, while Vitafoam lost 7.56 per cent to settle at N7.95 per unit.
Conversely, it was a good day for Julius Berger as its share price moved up by 9.73 per cent to N20.30 per unit and was closely followed by LivingTrust Mortgage Bank, which gained 9.68 per cent to sell for 68 kobo per share.
Honeywell Flour grew by 9.60 per cent to quote at N1.37 per unit, Cornerstone Insurance appreciated by 9.26 per cent to settle at 59 kobo per share, while UPDC REIT rose by 7.41 per cent to trade at N5.80 per unit.
A look at the activity chart on Wednesday indicated that the trading volume reduced by 31.49 per cent to 244.2 million shares from the previous day’s 356.4 million shares.
Also, the trading value went down by 53.95 per cent to N2.7 billion from N5.8 billion, while the number of deals decreased by 18.99 per cent to 4,083 deals from 5,040 deals recorded on Tuesday.
Unlike the preceding session, FBN Holdings was the active equity by volume yesterday with the sale of 52.3 million units of its shares worth N381.5 million.
Transcorp sold 24.8 million units for N23.8 million, GTBank exchanged 16.5 million stocks valued at N512.5 million, Zenith Bank transacted 14.0 million equities for N349.3 million, while Vitafoam traded 12.1 million stocks worth N94.5 million.
Adedapo Adesanya