By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading day of the new week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited finished on a bad note due to the 0.71 per cent loss recorded on Monday as a result of profit-taking by investors.
After recording gains in the past sessions, holders of FBN Holdings equities started to offload them gradually and with selloffs in MTN Nigeria, Nestle Nigeria, Oando and 20 others, the stock market succumbed to the authority of the bears.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 293.48 points to 41,144.67 points from 41,438.15 points, while the market capitalisation fell by N153 billion to N21.472 trillion from N21.625 trillion.
In terms of the performance of the sectors, the banking and the industrial goods counters appreciated by 0.43 per cent and 0.34 per cent respectively, while the consumer goods, insurance and energy sectors depreciated by 2.53 per cent, 1.65 per cent and 0.31 per cent apiece.
The heaviest price loser of the day was May & Baker as its value went down by 8.02 per cent to N4.36, Royal Exchange declined by 7.81 per cent to 59 kobo, NPF Microfinance Bank dropped 7.57 per cent to N1.71, FBN Holdings lost 7.48 per cent to quote at N11.75, while Mutual Benefits Assurance depleted by 6.67 per cent to 28 kobo.
There were 19 price gainers at the market yesterday and as expected, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc, which had its first full trading session on the exchange, topped the chart after its price went up by 9.86 per cent to N19.50.
Ikeja Hotels grew by 9.52 per cent to N1.15, Custodian Investment appreciated by 7.53 per cent to N7.85, Honeywell Flour gained 6.48 per cent to sell for N3.78, while Chams rose by 4.55 per cent to 23 kobo.
Business Post reports that investors traded 338.7 million stocks worth N4.1 billion in 5,866 deals on Monday as against the 729.0 million stocks worth N8.5 billion traded in 4,852 deals last Friday.
This showed that the volume of shares transacted by the market participants decreased by 53.53 per cent, while the value of shares fell by 52.43 per cent, with the number of deals rising by 20.90 per cent, according to data from the exchange.
FBN Holdings was the most active stock at the close of transactions as it sold 67.6 million units valued at N832.8 million, followed by Access Bank, which traded 36.6 million units worth N351.2 million.
Transcorp transacted 26.6 million shares valued at N26.6 million, GTCO exchanged 25.6 million equities for N755.3 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 19.5 million stocks for N53.3 million.
Adedapo Adesanya