Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading session of the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a bearish note just like the first trading day.
The NGX trading indices went down by 0.14 per cent despite the market breadth closing positive yesterday with 25 price gainers and 16 price losers.
Business Post observed that selloffs in the shares of MTN Nigeria, GTBank, Oando, Nigerian Breweries, Fidelity Bank and others were responsible for the decline by the market yesterday.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 53.82 points to 39,156.28 points from 39,210.10 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N28 billion to finish at N20.409 trillion compared with N20.437 trillion it closed on Thursday.
The worst-performing stock of the day was Champion Breweries with a decline of 10.00 per cent to settle at N1.80. NEM Insurance also lost 10.00 per cent to sell for N1.80, Royal Exchange went down by 9.33 per cent to 68 kobo, FTN Cocoa reduced by 8.33 per cent to 33 kobo, while Learn Africa declined by 8.26 per cent to finish at N1.00.
On the gainers’ chart, Cutix occupied the top spot with a price appreciation of 9.88 per cent to sell for N2.78. Jaiz Bank gained 9.26 per cent to trade at 59 kobo, Mutual Benefits rose by 6.98 per cent to quote at 46 kobo, Axa Mansard gained 4.76 per cent to 88 kobo, while Northern Nigerian Flour Mills appreciated by 4.24 per cent to N6.15.
Yesterday, Sterling Bank was the most active stock with the sale of 32.1 million units valued at N50.6 million, followed by Vitafoam, which sold 27.6 million units worth N331.1 million.
Zenith Bank transacted 25.7 million equities worth N594.7 million, Fidelity Bank sold 23.0 million stocks valued at N51.9 million, while GTBank exchanged 14.1 million shares for N407.8 million.
At the close of business, investors traded 289.1 million stocks worth N3.6 billion in 3,719 deals compared with the 158.4 million stocks worth N2.2 billion transacted in 3,330 deals a day earlier.
This signified that the trading volume, value and the number of deals increased by 82.54 per cent, 58.52 per cent and 11.68 per cent respectively.
In terms of the performance of the key sectors of the exchange, the insurance and consumer goods sectors went down by 0.56 per cent and 0.15 per cent respectively, while the energy, banking and industrial goods counters appreciated by 0.94 per cent, 0.05 per cent and 0.03 per cent apiece.
