By Dipo Olowookere
Sustained profit-taking further weakened the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday by 0.19 per cent as investors awaited the inflation figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The stats office, which later released the numbers after the equity trading closed for the day, said inflation accelerated by 15.70 per cent in February 2022 on a year-on-year basis.
Back to the stock market, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 87.81 points to 47,340.86 points from the preceding day’s 47,428.67 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N48 billion to N25.514 trillion from N25.562 trillion.
During the trading day, the activity level was very low as traders transacted 183.3 million shares worth N2.5 billion in 3,779 deals as against the 1.3 billion shares worth N7.9 billion transacted in 4,735 deals a day earlier, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 85.69 per cent, 68.74 per cent and 20.19 per cent respectively.
Unlike the previous session, where FCMB was the busiest stock, UBA took over the position yesterday with the sale of 23.4 million equities valued at N200.2 million.
Access Bank transacted 10.4 million stocks worth N108.9 million, FBN Holdings traded 10.2 million shares valued at N117.6 million, UAC Nigeria exchanged 9.7 million stocks for N104.4 million, while Zenith Bank sold 9.6 million equities valued at N259.6 million.
Business Post reports that only two of the five major sectors of the market closed higher on Tuesday and they were the consumer goods and industrial goods counters, which rose by 0.17 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively.
The insurance sector depreciated by 1.87 per cent, the oil/gas index lost 1.59 per cent, while the banking counter went down by 0.09 per cent.
On the price movement chart, the market breadth closed negative with 15 price gainers and 22 price losers led by Cornerstone Insurance, which fell by 8.82 per cent to 62 kobo.
Multiverse lost 8.33 per cent to sell for 22 kobo, SCOA Nigeria depreciated by 7.69 per cent to N2.40, Prestige Assurance retreated by 6.12 per cent to 46 kobo, while Japaul declined by 5.71 per cent to 33 kobo.
Conversely, Veritas Kapital topped the price gainers’ log yesterday as a result of the 4.76 per cent growth it posted to close at 22 kobo.
Chams rose by 4.55 per cent to 23 kobo, Eterna improved by 4.17 per cent to N5.25, Unilever Nigeria appreciated by 3.85 per cent to N13.50, while Royal Exchange gained 3.67 per cent to trade at N1.13.
Modupe Gbadeyanka