By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed lower by 0.57 per cent on Wednesday after spending a day in the green territory in the preceding trading session.
The loss recorded by Customs Street was triggered by selling pressure in the banking and consumer goods equities during the session.
The profit-taking brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 556.37 points to 96,567.24 points from 97,123.61 points and depleted the market capitalisation by N337 billion to N58.515 trillion from N58.852 trillion.
Business Post reports that the banking space declined by 0.92 per cent and the consumer goods counter depreciated by 0.13 per cent.
However, the energy index grew by 0.80 per cent, the insurance sector improved by 0.49 per cent, and the industrial goods industry increased by 0.03 per cent.
The worst-performing stock for the day was UBA after it dropped 9.99 per cent to sell at N31.55, as Oando lost 9.98 per cent to trade at N65.40, Thomas Wyatt declined by 9.79 per cent to N1.75, NASCON fell by 7.83 per cent to N30.00, and Lasaco Assurance slipped by 7.50 per cent to N2.22.
The best-performing stock for the session was Eunisell, which gained 9.87 per cent to close at N7.46, Regency Assurance jumped by 9.30 per cent to 47 Kobo, Veritas Kapital expanded by 9.17 per cent to N1.31, DAAR Communications leapt by 8.93 per cent to 61 Kobo, and FCMB rose by 7.73 per cent to N9.75.
At the close of business, the bourse recorded 20 price gainers and 21 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
Yesterday, the trading volume, value and number of deals decreased by 88.39 per cent, 60.94 per cent, and 15.53 per cent, respectively, after investors transacted 418.4 million shares worth N10.0 billion in 9,021 deals compared with the 3.6 billion shares valued at N25.6 billion traded in 10,679 deals on Tuesday.
Sterling Holdings sold 79.7 million equities for N401.9 million to top the activity chart, UBA exchanged 78.9 million shares valued at N2.6 billion, Access Holdings transacted 44.4 million stocks worth N1.1 billion, Jaiz Bank traded 43.6 million shares valued at N98.9 million, and Veritas Kapital transacted 25.3 million equities worth N32.5 million.
