By Dipo Olowookere
The leadership uncertainty in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which some observers have said led to the indefinite postponement of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, further put investors off at the local equity market on Friday.
Yesterday, the central bank said the person chosen by President Bola Tinubu to head the organisation, Mr Yemi Cardoso, has resumed in an acting capacity replacing the former acting CBN chief, Mr Folashodun Shonubi.
Mr Shonubi was appointed by Mr Tinubu to take over from Mr Godwin Emefiele, who was suspended from office and was said to have resigned in a statement issued on Friday by the spokesman of the apex bank, Mr Isa AbdulMumin.
Traders at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited reacted to this development, booking profit to cut down their exposure to domestic stocks, leading to the 1.39 per cent decline suffered by the market at the close of transactions.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) depleted by 946.55 points to 67,324.59 points from 68,271.14 points, and the market capitalisation decreased by N518 billion to N36.847 trillion from N37.365 trillion.
The loss was mainly due to heavy profit-taking in the industrial goods space, which closed lower by 4.77 per cent, as the insurance, banking, energy, and consumer goods sectors rose by 3.32 per cent, 0.75 per cent, 0.28 per cent, and 0.11 per cent, respectively.
Oando shed 9.89 per cent to trade at N11.85, Dangote Cement declined by 8.49 per cent to N334.00, Ikeja Hotel slumped by 8.09 per cent to N2.50, McNichols dropped 7.14 per cent to 65 Kobo, and Tantalizers fell by 6.25 per cent to 30 Kobo.
On the flip side, NEM Insurance gained 10.00 per cent to quote at N5.50, Lasaco Assurance rose by 9.68 per cent to N2.04, Cornerstone Insurance improved by 9.60 per cent to N1.37, Sunu Assurances grew by 9.38 per cent to N1.05, and DAAR Communications appreciated by 8.70 per cent to 25 Kobo.
The activity chart was in red on the last trading session of the week, with the trading volume, value, and the number of deals going down by 9.09 per cent, 24.14 per cent, and 19.86 per cent apiece.
This was because investors transacted 1.0 billion shares worth N4.4 billion in 6,370 deals, in contrast to the 1.1 billion shares worth N5.8 billion traded in 7,949 deals on Thursday.
Universal Insurance was the busiest after selling 670.2 million equities for N134.3 million, Sterling Holdings traded 65.2 million shares valued at N234.1 million, Oando exchanged 60.1 million stocks worth N720.0 million, Access Holdings transacted 33.0 million equities valued at N561.5 million, and UBA traded 24.7 million shares for N427.9 million.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka