By Dipo Olowookere
The nation’s equity market further depreciated on Thursday as risk-off sentiments continue to sway the movement of the exchange as investors trim their portfolios to reduce their exposure.
Yesterday, sell-offs in Dangote Cement and 20 other stocks ensured that the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed lower by 0.49 per cent as the market await a positive trigger that will bring back the bulls.
Business Post reports that apart from the consumer goods index, which closed 0.13 per cent higher, every other sector closed bearish, with the energy losing 1.11 per cent.
The industrial goods counter depreciated by 1.07 per cent, the banking space declined by 0.36 per cent, while the insurance index went down by 0.25 per cent.
By the time the market was closed for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) was down by 189.10 points to 38,044.58 points from 38,233.68 points, while the market capitalisation was down by N98 billion to N19.830 trillion from N19.928 trillion.
The heaviest loss on Thursday was suffered by Sovereign Trust Insurance as its value went down by 10.00 per cent to 27 kobo.
ABC Transport depreciated by 8.11 per cent to 34 kobo, Academy Press lost 7.69 per cent to close at 36 kobo, Royal Exchange declined by 6.33 per cent to 74 kobo, while Coronation Insurance dropped 5.66 per cent to settle at 50 kobo.
On the flip side, Mutual Benefits Assurance led the group of 16 price gainers yesterday after its equity price rose by 7.32 per cent to 44 kobo.
Cutix gained 7.14 per cent to trade at N2.25, Regency Alliance Insurance improved by 7.14 per cent to 45 kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance gained 6.35 per cent to sell for 67 kobo, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 6.00 per cent to N2.12.
The most traded stock of the day was Sovereign Trust Insurance as it sold 27.2 million stocks valued at N7.8 million and was trailed by Mutual Benefits Assurance, which traded 17.2 million equities worth N7.1 million.
UAC Nigeria transacted 15.7 million shares for N174.3 million, Transcorp exchanged 12.5 million stocks worth N10.8 million, while Sterling Bank traded 12.2 million equities valued at N20.1 million.
At the close of transactions, a total of 214.2 million shares worth N1.3 billion were traded in 3,565 deals in contrast to the 203.1 million stocks worth N1.8 billion transacted in 3,594 deals at the midweek session, signifying a 5.46 per cent rise in the trading volume, a 26.37 per cent decline in the trading value and a 0.81 per cent drop in the number of deals.
Adedapo Adesanya