Heavy Sell-offs Drop Stocks Value to N23.672trn

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed heavy sell-offs on Tuesday across all sectors, with the industrial goods and financial services counters the worst hit.

The local stock market waned by 1.82 per cent yesterday to bring down the year-to-date returns to 1.74 per cent as investor sentiment remained relatively weak.

Business Post reports that the energy sector gained 0.56 per cent during the session, but it could not save the bourse claws of the bears, as losses from the others compounded the woes of the exchange.

The industrial goods index declined by 3.93 per cent, the insurance space fell by 0.58 per cent, the consumer goods counter went down by 0.58 per cent, and the banking sector depreciated by 0.17 per cent.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 807.83 points to 43,461.60 points from 44,269.43 points, as the market capitalisation shed N440 billion to settle at N23.672 trillion compared with the previous day’s N24.112 trillion.

The volume of trades increased by 141.92 per cent on Tuesday to 249.9 million shares from Monday’s 103.3 million shares, the value of transactions went up by 19.05 per cent to N2.5 billion from N2.1 billion, and the number of deals grew by 2.40 per cent to 3,283 deals from the previous day’s 3,206 deals.

Access Holdings finished the session as the most active stock with 128.7 million units, FBN Holdings traded 19.5 million units, Transcorp sold 17.4 million units, Fidelity Bank sold 14.9 million units, and GTCO traded 14.6 million units.

The market breadth was negative yesterday as the bourse closed with 12 price gainers and 19 price losers led by Guinness Nigeria, which fell by 9.95 per cent to trade at N74.65. Custodian Investment declined by 9.32 per cent to N5.35, Dangote Cement depreciated by 8.33 per cent to N220.00, Courteville dropped 8.00 per cent to sell at 46 Kobo, and NEM Insurance decreased by 7.50 per cent to N3.70.

The biggest price gainer for the session was Unity Bank, which chalked up 10.00 per cent to settle at 44 Kobo, Thomas Wyatt gained 8.57 per cent to close at 38 Kobo, Jaiz Bank appreciated by 6.38 per cent to N1.00, Fidson grew by 5.76 per cent to N8.99, and Geregu improved by 5.09 per cent to N121.80.