By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of the new week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited saw the bears dominating, resulting in a 0.73 per cent loss at the close of transactions on Monday.
Profit-taking activities took over the bourse during the session as investors offloaded some equities that had gained in the past trading session, especially those in the financial services sector.
Business Post reports that the insurance index, which closed higher by 2.67 per cent, could not save the domestic stock market from falling when trading activities were brought to an end.
This newspaper gathered from the market data that the banking space lost 2.30 per cent, the consumer goods index depreciated by 0.03 per cent, and the energy and industrial goods counters closed flat.
At the close of the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 761.42 points to settle at 103,659.81 points compared with last Friday’s 104,421.23 points, and the market capitalisation fell by N437 billion to N56.721 trillion compared with the preceding session’s N57.158 trillion.
With the NGX ending with 29 depreciating stocks and 26 appreciating stocks, the market breadth index was negative as investor sentiment turned bearish.
Abbey Mortgage Bank finished the day as the worst-performing equity after it shed 9.70 per cent to trade at N2.70, Livestock Feeds declined by 9.66 per cent to N1.87, Fidelity Bank lost 9.37 per cent to sell for N11.60, Jaiz Bank retreated by 7.93 per cent to N2.67, and MTN Nigeria moderated by 5.52 per cent to N274.00.
Conversely, the quintet of May & Baker, Cornerstone Insurance, Cadbury Nigeria, DAAR Communications, and Meyer finished as the best-performing stocks after growing by 10.00 per cent each to N6.93, N2.09, N22.00, 77 Kobo, and N4.73, respectively.
A total of 841.6 million shares worth N19.3 billion were traded in 13,674 deals yesterday compared with the 943.5 million shares worth N23.5 billion traded in 11,512 deals last Friday, representing a spike in the number of deals by 18.78 per cent, and a decline in the trading volume and value by 10.80 per cent, and 17.87 per cent apiece.
Sitting on top of the activity chart as the most active equity on Monday was FBN Holdings, which sold 332.3 million units for N9.0 billion, trailed by Transcorp with 50.0 million units worth N812.1 million. Oando transacted 43.5 million units valued at N637.1 million, UBA traded 34.7 million units worth N951.3 million, and Nigerian Breweries exchanged 29.8 million units for N1.1 billion.
