By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed flat on Tuesday despite the busy nature of the market during the second trading session of the week.
Business Post reports that the activity level improved yesterday as investors bought Access Bank for its interim dividend as well as others, while the others offloaded a few equities like FBN Holdings.
This pushed the trading volume higher by 68.73 per cent to 355.9 million units to 211.0 million units, raised the trading value by 107.55 per cent to N2.9 billion from N1.4 billion and lifted the number of deals by 6.32 per cent to 4,241 deals from 3,989 deals.
At the close of business, FBN Holdings was the most traded stock with 92.3 million units worth N687.7 million, while Access Bank trailed with 75.7 million units worth N711.9 million.
Further, Universal Insurance transacted 25.2 million units valued at N5.1 million, UBA traded 18.4 million units worth N138.6 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 14.3 million units valued at N346.4 million.
The market breadth ended negative yesterday, indicating a weak investor sentiment as 15 stocks closed on the gainers’ chart while 21 equities ended on the losers’ chart.
United Capital was the biggest price riser, chalking up 8.00 per cent to sell for N8.10. International Breweries gained 7.53 per cent to trade at N5.00, Honeywell Flour grew by 6.67 per cent to N4.00, Oando rose by 6.02 per cent to N4.40, while Africa Prudential appreciated by 5.79 per cent to N6.40.
On the flip side, Cornerstone Insurance led the losers’ gang after its share price went down by 8.77 per cent to 52 kobo and was trailed by Universal Insurance, while lost 4.76 per cent to close at 20 kobo.
In addition, Ecobank depreciated by 4.55 per cent to N5.25, NEM Insurance went down by 4.50 per cent to sell at N1.91, while UAC Nigeria declined by 4.09 per cent to settle at N10.55.
In terms of the performance of the key sectors of the exchange, it closed mixed with the industrial goods index trading flat, while the energy and the consumer goods counters rose by 1.00 per cent and 0.52 per cent apiece, with the insurance and the banking sectors closing lower by 0.90 per cent and 0.31 per cent respectively.
As for the All-Share Index (ASI), it ended at 39,251.29 points as against the preceding session’s 39,252.89 points, while the market capitalisation contracted by N1 billion to N20.452 trillion from N20.451 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya