By Dipo Olowookere
The growth recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday was short-lived as the market fell by 1.40 per cent on Friday.
At the last trading session of the week, the selloff in the shares of the big players in the industrial goods sector weakened the positive performance of other sectors.
The counter depreciated by 4.55 per cent and it was the lone loser as the banking space grew by 0.52 per cent, the consumer goods index rose by 0.28 per cent, the energy space jumped 0.14 per cent, while the insurance counter gained 0.04 per cent.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) 574.45 points to settle at 40,439.85 points in contrast to the previous 41,014.30 points.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation reduced by N300 billion to finish at N21.156 trillion as against N21.456 trillion it ended on Thursday.
Yesterday, Livestock Feeds was the heaviest price loser as it depreciated by 9.78 per cent to settle at N2.03 per unit, while NEM Insurance dropped 9.69 per cent to end at N2.05 per share.
BUA Cement lost 7.22 per cent to trade at N73.30 per unit, Sovereign Trust Insurance deflated by 7.14 per cent to 26 kobo per share, while Dangote Cement depleted by 3.51 per cent to N220 per unit.
On the gainers’ chart, UAC Property was on top after a price appreciation of 9.59 per cent to settle at 80 kobo per share and was trailed by Linkage Assurances, which grew by 9.26 per cent to trade at 59 kobo per unit.
Japaul and Unity Bank gained 9.23 per cent each to close at 71 kobo per share apiece, while African Alliance Insurance appreciated by 9.09 per cent to quote at 24 kobo per unit.
Unlike the preceding day, the level of activity was lower as the trading volume, value and number of deals decreased by 18.86 per cent, 68.96 per cent and 19.05 per cent respectively.
During the session, investors traded 395.6 million shares worth N5.2 billion in 5,321 deals in contrast to the 1.3 billion stocks worth N6.4 billion traded on Thursday in 6,573 deals.
Business Post observed buying pressure in the banking space yesterday and it was around the tier-1 lenders.
Zenith Bank traded 55.6 million shares valued at N1.4 billion, Transcorp sold 42.7 million equities worth N41.0 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 42.1 million stocks for N302.5 million, GTBank also traded 42.1 million shares valued at N1.3 billion, while Access Bank transacted 40.9 million equities for N330.5 million.
