Customs Street Cracks by 0.12% as Traders Sell Off Wema Bank, Others

By Dipo Olowookere

The bulls lost control of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited to the bears on Thursday amid sustained weak investor sentiment.

Customs Street ended in the red zone by 0.12 per cent after it recorded 20 price advancers and 28 price laggards, implying a negative market breadth index.

DAAR Communications was on top of the losers’ table yesterday after it let go of 10.00 per cent of its previous day’s closing price to trade at 72 Kobo.

Wema Bank shed 9.93 per cent to sell at N7.80, PZ Cussons went down by 9.89 per cent to N24.60, Academy Press depreciated by 9.84 per cent to N1.74, and Morison Industries tumbled by 9.76 per cent to N1.85.

On the flip side, Omatek and Sunu Assurances topped the gainers’ log after they went up by 10.00 per cent each to 77 Kobo and N2.09, respectively. Juli stretched its value by 9.79 per cent to N2.13, Caverton advanced by 9.52 per cent to N1.84, and NEM Insurance was elevated by 9.09 per cent to N6.60.

Apart from the industrial goods counter, which gained 0.04 per cent, every other sector closed lower, with the banking space losing 0.44 per cent. The insurance index depreciated by 0.22 per cent, and the consumer goods counter declined by 0.08 per cent, while the energy sector closed flat.

The profit-taking witnessed during the session brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 123.28 points to 101,239.10 points from 101,362.38 points, as the market capitalisation crumbled by N67 billion to N55.397 trillion from N55.464 trillion.

The activity chart bled yesterday, as the trading volume, value, and the number of deals decreased by 16.42 per cent, 25.76 per cent, and 15.83 per cent apiece.

This was because investors traded 253.0 million equities for N4.9 billion in 7,248 deals versus the 302.7 million equities valued at N6.6 billion traded in 8,611 deals on Wednesday.

Analysis of the chart indicated that FBN Holdings was the most active with the sale of 31.9 million stocks worth N917.3 million, UBA sold 22.3 million shares for N533.2 million, Access Holdings transacted 14.5 million equities valued at N312.1 million, Prestige Assurance exchanged 13.6 million shares worth N8.0 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 12.5 million stocks valued at N447.7 million.