Heavy Sell-Offs Tumble Nigerian Exchange by 1.95%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered a loss of 1.95 per cent on Friday after it came under significant selling pressure, particularly from the industrial goods space.

Business Post reports that the industrial goods index went down by 5.90 per cent during the session, as the energy counter shrank by 0.54 per cent, the banking sector depreciated by 0.33 per cent, and the consumer goods space declined by 0.14 per cent, while the insurance sector appreciated by 0.32 per cent.

The sustained profit-taking at the bourse pulled down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 1,955.47 points to 98,201.49 points from 100,156.96 points and contracted the market capitalisation by N1.107 trillion to N55.605 trillion from the N56.712 trillion it ended a day earlier.

Eterna was the worst-performing stock after it lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N16.20, Dangote Cement went down by 9.99 per cent to close at N591.10, DAAR Communications declined by 9.62 per cent to 47 Kobo, Mecure Industries plunged by 9.50 per cent to quote at N9.05, and Deap Capital slipped by 8.93 per cent to 51 Kobo.

The best-performing equity for the day was Oando as it gained 10.00 per cent to finish at N20.35, FCMB appreciated by 8.22 per cent to N7.90, Coronation Insurance moved up by 7.50 per cent to 86 Kobo, Consolidated Hallmark expanded by 6.15 per cent to N1.38, and NAHCO inflated by 5.95 per cent to N39.20.

The bourse ended with 25 price losers and 17 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index and bearish investor sentiment.

During the session, investors traded 1.1 billion stocks valued at N21.6 billion in 9,098 deals versus the 1.3 billion stocks worth N9.7 billion traded in 8,198 deals on Thursday, showing a decline in the trading volume by 15.39 per cent, and a rise in the trading value by 122.68 per cent and 10.98 per cent, respectively.

The busiest equity was FCMB, which sold 495.6 million units for N3.8 billion, Abbey Mortgage Bank transacted 234.0 million units for N610.8 million, Oando traded 73.0 million units valued at N1.5 billion, Transcorp Power exchanged 30.8 million units for N10.4 billion, and Access Holdings traded 30.5 million units worth N575.8 million.