Customs Street Slips 0.33% as Investors Book Profit

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited tasted its first defeat in six consecutive trading sessions on Tuesday after it slipped by 0.33 per cent due to profit-taking by investors.

Sell-offs in most of the key sectors of Customs Street contributed to the downfall yesterday, though the energy index was up by 0.08 per cent and the consumer goods space was flat.

They could not stop the ravaging bears, which had been in hiding for the past trading days because of the dominance of the bulls.

The insurance counter lost 1.53 per cent, the commodity segment shed 0.49 per cent, the industrial goods landscape depleted by 0.06 per cent, and the banking industry tumbled by 0.05 per cent.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) gave up 487.66 points to close at 146,940.29 points versus the previous day’s 147,427.95 points and the market capitalisation dipped by N311 billion to N93.659 trillion from Monday’s N93.970 trillion.

Eterna and Austin Laz lost 10.00 per cent each to sell for N31.95 and N2.07 apiece, Transcorp Hotels depreciated by 9.95 per cent to N155.60, Ikeja Hotel crashed by 9.65 per cent to N28.10, and UAC Nigeria dropped 9.09 per cent to settle at N88.00.

On the flip side, Learn Africa improved by 9.57 per cent to N6.30, MeCure gained 8.72 per cent to finish at N32.40, Deap Capital went up by 7.50 per cent to N1.72, International Energy Insurance appreciated by 6.52 per cent to N2.45, and RT Briscoe climbed by 5.96 per cent to N3.20.

Business Post reports that yesterday, 21 stocks were on the gainers’ log and 32 on the losers’ chart, indicating weak investor sentiment and bearish market breadth index.

About 2.0 billion shares worth N30.2 billion were traded in 23,038 deals during the session compared with the 550.9 million shares valued at N13.9 billion transacted in 30,090 deals a day earlier, showing that the number of deals shrank by 23.44 per cent, the trading volume increased by 263.04 per cent and the trading value rose by 117.27 per cent.

The significant jump in the activity level was triggered by the 1.0 billion stocks of eTranzact worth N7.5 billion recorded at the trading session. It led the activity chart because of this transaction.

Access Holdings exchanged 183.6 million equities for N3.8 billion, Cornerstone Insurance traded 116.0 million stocks valued at N609.4 million, Consolidated Hallmark sold 79.4 million equities worth N319.3 million, and FCMB transacted 78.1 million shares valued at N850.6 million.