Cadbury, FBN Holdings, Others Pull Back NGX Index by 0.31%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed a pullback of 0.31 per cent on Thursday, with the All-Share Index (ASI) going down by 204.25 points to 65,482.91 points from 65,687.16 points.

This was because investors went on a selling spree as a result of disappointing half-year earnings of Cadbury Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries and others.

This profit-taking in consumer goods stocks depleted the market capitalisation of the bourse by N111 billion during the session to N35.635 trillion from N35.746 trillion.

Business Post observed that the 0.88 per cent gained by the energy space, the 0.02 per cent growth recorded by the banking sector and the 0.01 per cent improvement printed by the industrial goods counter could not salvage the market because the insurance sector lost 0.95 per cent, and the consumer goods index shed 0.66 per cent.

Investor sentiment was bearish yesterday, with the market breadth negative after Customs Street finished with 14 price advancers and 38 price decliners.

Japaul depreciated by 9.91 per cent to N1.00, Cadbury Nigeria shed 9.80 per cent to close at N13.80, FTN Cocoa dropped 9.40 per cent to finish at N2.41, Neimeth lost 9.34 per cent to trade at N1.65, and Courteville declined by 9.09 per cent to 60 Kobo.

Conversely, Lasaco Assurance jumped on Thursday by 10.00 per cent to N2.09, Multiverse improved by 9.96 per cent to N2.98, SAHCO rose by 9.91 per cent to N23.30, RT Briscoe appreciated by 6.00 per cent to 53 Kobo, and CAP gained 5.26 per cent to end at N22.00.

The activity chart was mixed yesterday after the trading value went down by 32.39 per cent to N4.8 billion from N7.1 billion, as the number of deals increased by 9.87 per cent to 8,070 deals from 7,345 deals, and the trading volume grew by 1.78 per cent to 509.3 million units from 500.4 million units.

Japual closed the session as the most active stock after it traded 115.7 million units valued at N129.7 million, UBA transacted 40.4 million units worth N595.9 million, Transcorp exchanged 37.5 million units valued at N133.5 million, FCMB sold 35.0 million units for N237.7 million, and Fidelity Bank traded 31.9 million units valued at N271.2 million.