By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited turned red on Tuesday following activities of profit-takers, which weakened the local bourse by 0.09 per cent at the close of business.
It was the first loss Nigerian stocks were witnessing in 2022 as the five previous trading sessions have all ended in the positive territory.
What happened yesterday at the exchange was just profit-taking as investors felt it was the right time to sell some stocks, which have appreciated in the past sessions.
This action consequently brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 37.83 points to 43,859.30 points from 43,897.13 points and reduced the market capitalisation by N20 billion to N23.631 trillion from N23.651 trillion.
The market breadth was negative on Thursday amid a weak investor sentiment as there were 17 price appreciating stocks and 26 price depreciating stocks at the close of transactions.
Mutual Benefits finished the day as the worst-performing stock, losing 10.00 per cent to quote at 27 kobo, Berger Paints fell by 9.94 per cent to N7.70, UPDC REIT declined by 8.14 per cent to N3.95, Nestle Nigeria depreciated by 7.81 per cent to N1,435.00, while Unity Bank dropped 6.12 per cent to sell for 46 kobo.
The best-performing stock on Tuesday, according to data from the exchange, was BUA Foods as its share price went up by 10.00 per cent to trade at N64.35.
Eterna grew by 5.09 per cent to N5.57, Union Bank appreciated by 4.63 per cent to N5.65, Wema Bank gained 3.57 per cent to quote at 87 kobo, while Oando rose by 2.83 per cent to N4.73.
Business Post reports that Transcorp was the most active stock at the exchange yesterday, recording a turnover of 58.4 million units valued at N57.4 million.
BUA Foods traded 51.5 million shares worth N3.3 billion, FBN Holdings exchanged 16.5 million equities for N197.3 million, GTCO transacted 14.1 million stocks for N358.2 million, while Access Bank sold 13.3 million shares worth N126.8 million.
When the closing gong was beaten at 2:30 pm on Tuesday, the exchange recorded a turnover of 294.5 million equities worth N6.8 billion in 4,501 deals compared with the 311.3 million equities worth N8.6 billion sold in 5,159 deals on Monday.
This showed that the volume of trades recorded yesterday went down by 5.37 per cent, the value of transactions depreciated by 21.68 per cent and the number of deals fell by 12.75 per cent.
As per the performance of the key sectors of the market, the energy and banking counters appreciated by 0.95 per cent and 0.16 per cent apiece, while the consumer goods, insurance and industrial goods counters depreciated by 4.76 per cent, 2.14 per cent and 0.27 per cent respectively.
Adedapo Adesanya