Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The equity market in Nigeria further depreciated on Thursday by 0.79 per cent as investors await a trigger that would spur them to develop an appetite for the volatile investment tool.
Yesterday, it was observed that investors’ apathy for stocks dwindled, though the activity chart showed an improvement in the level of transactions, it was still below the normal daily average.
For now, traders are taking profit, especially on Oando, which has seen a significant rise in its value in the past few days, and this is weighing on the market.
At the close of business on Thursday, the market breadth, which measures investor sentiment, closed negative with 17 price gainers and 22 price losers.
Oando finished the session as the heaviest price loser with a decline of 9.70 per cent to trade at N4.75 and was trailed by UAC Nigeria, which lost 8.93 per cent to sell at N10.20.
Linkage Assurance depreciated by 7.69 per cent to 60 kobo, FTN Cocoa went down by 7.55 per cent to 49 kobo, while UPDC declined by 5.56 per cent to N1.19.
Conversely, the biggest price gainer of the session was Tripple G as its value went up by 10.00 per cent to 99 kobo and was trailed by Regency Alliance, which gained 9.76 per cent to close at 45 kobo.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance improved by 9.26 per cent to 59 kobo, Prestige Assurance appreciated by 8.89 per cent to 49 kobo, while Academy Press gained 8.57 per cent to trade at 38 kobo.
Apart from the insurance sector, which gained 3.24 per cent yesterday, every other key sector closed negative with the industrial goods space losing 2.02 per cent.
The energy counter went down by 1.93 per cent, the banking sector depreciated by 0.81 per cent, while the consumer goods counter declined by 0.35 per cent, data obtained by Business Post showed.
The losses printed by these sectors affected the All-Share Index (ASI) of the exchange as it went down by 306.21 points to 38,484.82 points from 38,791.03 points and it shrank the market capitalisation by N160 billion to N20.051 trillion from N20.211 trillion.
At the market yesterday, investors traded 260.0 million equities worth N2.0 billion in 4,975 deals as against the 237.5 million equities worth N1.9 billion transacted in 4,305 deals.
Analysis of the activity chart showed that Oando was the most traded stock as a result of heavy profit-taking and when the market closed for the day, it transacted 56.3 million shares worth N288.5 million.
GTCO transacted 15.3 million equities valued at N444.9 million, Jaiz Bank exchanged 14.9 million stocks for N9.2 million, Fidelity Bank traded 14.4 million shares for N34.2 million, while Wema Bank sold 12.2 million equities worth N10.1 million.
