Nigerian Stocks Remain in Distress on Sustained Selloff

By Dipo Olowookere

It was another bearish session on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday as sustained selloff further left Nigerian stocks in distress by 0.01 per cent.

Profit-taking remained across the sectors but the most hit were the energy, banking and industrial goods counters, which depreciated by 0.26 per cent, 0.25 per cent and 0.09 per cent respectively, while the insurance and consumer goods sectors closed higher by 1.19 per cent and 0.04 per cent apiece.

Business Post reports that the market reported 16 price gainers and 16 price losers yesterday, with C&I Leasing finishing as the worst-performing stock after it lost 9.78 per cent to sell at N4.06.

Chams depreciated by 9.09 per cent to trade at 20 kobo, Julius Berger went down by 9.05 per cent to quote at N19.10, Royal Exchange reduced by 8.82 per cent to 62 kobo, while ABC Transport dropped 6.82 per cent to 41 kobo.

The best-performing equity of the day was Prestige Assurance as its value rose by 8.16 per cent to 53 kobo and was trailed by Coronation Insurance, which grew by 8.00 per cent to 54 kobo.

NPF Microfinance Bank appreciated by 7.23 per cent to N1.78, Sterling Bank gained 7.05 per cent to sell at N1.67, while UAC Property appreciated by 5.06 per cent to 83 kobo.

On the activity chart, the most traded stock on Friday was Chams as it transacted 36.9 million units of its shares valued at N7.4 million and was followed by UAC Nigeria, which traded 25.0 million shares worth N265.0 million.

BUA Cement sold 10.3 million equities worth N761.5 million, Mutual Benefits Assurance exchanged 8.7 million stocks valued at N3.8 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 8.7 million shares for N62.7 million.

At the close of transactions, a total of 174.3 million equities worth N2.0 billion were traded in 2,581 deals as against the 157.3 million shares worth N1.7 billion exchanged in 2,824 deals at the preceding session.

As for the main key performance indicators of the exchange, the All-Share Index (ASI) and the market capitalisation, the former went down by 4.06 points to 38,324.07 points from 38,328.13 points, while the latter decreased by N3 billion to N19.975 trillion from N19.978 trillion.