Equity Market Sheds N17bn as Investors Stay Away

By Dipo Olowookere

The equity market in Nigeria was relatively quiet on Thursday as investors stayed away with the others selling off to book profit from the gains of the past trading sessions.

This was reflected in the activity level yesterday and contributed to the further decline of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 0.08 per cent at the close of transactions.

Business Post reports that the number of deals went down by 24.72 per cent to 3,688 deals from 4,899 deals, the trading volume fell by 45.08 per cent to 160.9 million stocks from 292.9 million stocks, while the trading value dropped 31.63 per cent to N1.4 billion from N2.1 billion.

FBN Holdings closed as the most traded stock with 19.5 million units worth N208.3 million, Lasaco Assurance exchanged 10.6 million units for N10.6 million, Transcorp also traded 10.6 million units valued at N10.7 million, Japaul transacted 8.7 million units worth N3.4 million, while NGX Group sold 8.1 million units for N154.1 million.

It was observed that the weak investor sentiment remained during the trading session as the market breadth ended negative with 25 price depreciating shares and 13 price appreciation equities.

SCOA Nigeria was the best-performing stock as its price rose by 9.47 per cent to N1.04, Linkage Assurance grew by 7.55 per cent to 57 kobo, Okomu Oil improved by 5.19 per cent to N142.00, AIICO Insurance gained 4.92 per cent to sell at N1.28, while Honeywell Flour chalked up 4.60 per cent to trade at N3.64.

Conversely, Pharma Deko finished the session as the worst-performing equity after its value went down by 10.00 per cent to N2.34. Unilever Nigeria dropped 8.65 per cent to N14.25, Red Star Express depleted by 8.24 per cent to N3.12, Royal Exchange fell by 7.69 per cent to 48 kobo, while Cutix depreciated by 7.50 per cent to N5.55.

Unlike the preceding trading day, one sector closed bullish yesterday and it was the insurance index, which appreciated by 1.29 per cent.

However, the energy counter declined by 0.64 per cent, the consumer goods space depreciated by 0.58 per cent, the banking sector dropped 0.51 per cent, while the industrial goods index lost 0.13 per cent.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI), which is the main performance indicator of the exchange, shed 31.62 points to finish at 41,943.83 points in contrast to the previous session’s 41,975.45 points, while the market capitalisation, which measures the total value of stocks at the bourse, depleted by N17 billion to N21.889 trillion from N21.906 trillion.