Customs Street Falls by 0.09% as Bears Maintain Dominance

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session of April at Customs Street, Lagos, ended on a negative note on Monday with a 0.09 per cent loss caused by sustained selling pressure.

This saw the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited going down by 48.00 points to 54,184.34 points from 54,232.34 points, as the market capitalisation depreciated by N26 billion to settle at N29.518 trillion compared with the preceding session’s N29.544 trillion.

Most of the sectors were under pressure yesterday as investors rebalanced their portfolios and reacted to the earnings of companies listed on the stock exchange.

The insurance sector appreciated by 0.30 per cent on Monday, while the industrial goods counter remained unchanged, with the energy, consumer goods and banking indices depleted by 0.32 per cent, 0.31 per cent and 0.26 per cent apiece.

SCOA Nigeria was the heaviest price loser during the session as its value went down by 10.00 per cent to 90 Kobo, UAC Nigeria lost 9.95 per cent to trade at N8.60, Sunu Assurances decreased by 9.62 per cent to 47 Kobo, Eterna fell by 9.56 per cent to N6.15, and ABC Transport shrank by 8.11 per cent to 34 Kobo.

Conversely, Lasaco Assurance and Axa Mansard Insurance were the biggest price gainers yesterday after they added 10.00 per cent each to trade at N1.21 and N2.09, respectively. NAHCO rose by 9.88 per cent to N8.90, Ikeja Hotel appreciated by 8.20 per cent to N1.32, and FTN Cocoa gained 7.69 per cent to finish at 28 Kobo.

Data obtained by Business Post showed that investor sentiment was weak on Monday as the market breadth was negative, with 11 price gainers and 22 price losers.

On the activity chart, investors transacted 292.6 million shares valued at N2.4 billion in 4,408 deals compared with the 557.9 million shares worth N3.7 billion transacted in 3,943 deals in the preceding session, indicating an increase in the number of deals by 11.79 per cent, and a decline in the trading volume and value by 47.55 per cent and 35.14 per cent, respectively.

Fidelity Bank was the busiest stock during the session as it sold 79.7 million units, Transcorp traded 28.8 million units, UBA sold 26.8 million units, Access Holdings exchanged 17.1 million units, and Oando traded 13.1 million units.