Bears Tighten Grip on NGX as Index Further Sheds 0.03%

By Dipo Olowookere

For the third straight trading session, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed in the negative territory with a marginal 0.03 per cent loss on Thursday as the bears tightened their grip on the market.

A decline in the share prices of MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Julius Berger, FBN Holdings and seven others contributed to the poor performance of the exchange yesterday.

However, the investor sentiment and the market breadth closed positive respectively as there were 14 price gainers led by Union Bank.

The news of a takeover of the lender by a relatively new bank, Titan Trust Bank, triggered a buying interest in the shares of the firm, causing the value to rise by 9.78 per cent to N5.05 at the close of transactions.

Royal Exchange appreciated by 7.14 per cent to 75 kobo, Mutual Benefits grew by 6.67 per cent to 32 kobo, Eterna gained 6.00 per cent to sell for N5.30, while Oando rose by 5.26 per cent to N4.60.

Julius Berger recorded the heaviest loss on Thursday as its value went down by 9.88 per cent to N22.35, UPDC dropped 5.60 per cent to N1.18, Sovereign Trust Insurance lost 4.00 per cent to trade at 24 kobo, FBN Holdings declined by 2.50 per cent to N11.70, while Honeywell Flour retreated by 1.43 per cent to N3.45.

At the market yesterday, the consumer goods sector was the only decliner as it closed 0.02 per cent lower, while the energy, banking, insurance and industrial goods counters finished higher by 1.10 per cent, 0.52 per cent, 0.36 per cent and 0.13 per cent respectively.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 13.74 points to 42,230.48 points from 42,244.22 points, while the market capitalisation depleted by N7 billion to finish at N22.043 trillion versus the previous day’s N22.050 trillion.

Business Post reports that UAC Nigeria was the most traded stock on Thursday as it recorded a turnover of 65.0 million units valued at N617.0 million.

Sovereign Trust Insurance sold 23.3 million equities worth N5.5 million, GTCO exchanged 21.1 million stocks for N549.6 million, Jaiz Bank traded 15.0 million shares valued at N9.6 million, while Unity Bank transacted 8.0 million stocks worth N3.8 million.

In all, a total of 211.1 million shares worth N2.5 billion were traded in 2,815 deals during the session compared with the 224.0 million shares worth N2.7 billion transacted in 2,677 deals the preceding trading day, indicating a decline in the trading volume and value by 5.77 per cent and 7.26 per cent respectively and a 5.16 per cent increase in the number of deals.