By Dipo Olowookere
Financial stocks on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited came under selling pressure on Monday and they brought down the bourse by 0.14 per cent when trading activities ended for the session.
The insurance sector depreciated by 0.86 per cent, the banking counter lost 0.45 per cent, while the industrial goods index declined by 0.29 per cent.
The losses printed by the trio overshadowed the 0.02 per cent improvement reported by the consumer goods space as the energy sector closed flat.
The All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 69.41 points yesterday to settle at 49,625.71 points in contrast to the preceding session’s 49,695.12 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N38 billion to N26.767 trillion from N26.805 trillion.
The activity chart was mixed during the session as the trading volume decreased by 72.86 per cent to 86.6 million units from 319.1 million units, the trading value depleted by 37.22 per cent to N1.2 billion from N1.9 billion, while the number of trades increased by 1.26 per cent to 3,377 deals from 3,335 deals.
GTCO ended the day as the most active stock as it traded 19.5 million units valued at N385.6 million, Sterling Bank transacted 6.2 million units worth N9.4 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 5.9 million units for N118.7 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 5.8 million units worth N20.0 million, while Chams sold 5.6 million units for N1.9 billion.
Beta Glass was the worst-performing stock on Monday as its value went down by 9.96 per cent to N46.10, NEM Insurance depreciated by 7.96 per cent to N5.20, Japaul declined by 6.90 per cent to 27 Kobo, Fidelity Bank went down by 6.58 per cent to N3.41, while FCMB decreased by 5.71 per cent to N3.30.
The best-performing stock for the session was Multiverse, which grew by 9.32 per cent to N2.56, FTN Cocoa expanded by 6.67 per cent to 32 Kobo, Chams rose by 6.45 per cent to 33 Kobo, Academy Press improved by 4.76 per cent to N2.20, while Regency Assurance went up by 4.17 per cent to 25 Kobo.
