By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited was bearish as the market went down by 1.66 per cent on Tuesday.
The stock market was shut down on Monday as a result of the Democracy Day public holiday declared by the federal government to celebrate June 12.
Investors returned yesterday to take profit from the gains posted in the previous trading sessions and this weakened the All-Share Index (ASI) by 648.99 points to 38,507.29 points from 39,156.28 points of the preceding session.
In the same vein, this selling pressure reduced the market capitalisation of the exchange by N340 billion to N20.069 trillion from N20.409 trillion it closed last Friday.
Business Post reports that the market breadth was negative as there were only 19 price gainers against the 26 price losers recorded at the close of transactions.
Airtel Africa was the heaviest price loser as its share price went down by 10.00 per cent to N753.30, followed by Okomu Oil, which dropped 9.44 per cent to N105.50.
Cornerstone Insurance depreciated by 9.09 per cent to 50 kobo, Learn Africa declined by 8.00 per cent to 92 kobo, while Livestock Feeds reduced by 4.74 per cent to N1.81.
On the flip side, CWG topped the gainers’ chart after its value went up yesterday by 9.73 per cent to N1.24. Berger Paints gained 6.72 per cent to sell for N7.15, Red Star Express rose by 4.19 per cent to N3.23, NEM Insurance appreciated by 3.89 per cent to N1.87, while Coronation Insurance gained 3.64 per cent to 57 kobo.
On the trading day, Access Bank was the most active stock. The tier-one banking institution traded 43.1 million units of its shares valued at N359.5 million.
Sterling Bank transacted 33.2 million units worth N52.1 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 25.9 million units valued at N602.2 million, UAC Nigeria transacted 22.9 million units worth N216.8 million, while Union Homes REIT sold 19.0 million units valued at N695.9 million.
At the close of business, a total of 297.3 million shares worth N3.7 billion were traded in 4,402 deals compared with the 289.1 million shares worth N3.6 billion transacted in 3,719 deals the preceding day. This indicated that the trading volume, value and number of deals increased by 2.86 per cent, 2.96 per cent and 18.37 per cent respectively.
In terms of the sectors’ performances, the consumer goods space declined by 0.18 per cent, while the industrial goods counter closed flat, with the insurance, banking and energy sectors closing higher by 0.41 per cent, 0.16 per cent and 0.13 per cent apiece.
Adedapo Adesanya