Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The stock market succumbed to selling pressure on Monday, with a 0.14 per cent loss triggered by a further rise in the inflation rate in Nigeria by 26.72 per cent in September.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday revealed that the average prices of goods and services rose higher than August’s rate of 25.80 per cent.
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited reacted to this development, resulting in investors pulling out N52 billion in panic, leaving the market capitalisation at N36.831 trillion versus the preceding session’s N36.883 trillion.
The inability of inflation to cool off took out 95.26 points from the All-Share Index (ASI), which ended at 67,037.93 points compared with last Friday’s 67,133.19 points.
The insurance, energy and industrial goods counters lost 0.44 per cent, 0.27 per cent and 0.06 per cent apiece yesterday, while the banking and the consumer goods sectors gained 0.94 per cent and 0.39 per cent, respectively, though they could not prevent the bourse from sinking.
Cautious trading dominated the space on the first trading session of the week, with the trading volume and value going down by 30.13 per cent and 21.74 per cent apiece, while the number of deals went up by 6.75 per cent.
A total of 216.1 million stocks valued at N3.6 billion exchanged hands in 5,965 deals on Monday compared with the 309.3 million stocks worth N4.6 billion traded in 5,588 deals last Friday.
The activity chart was topped by UBA, which sold 32.6 million shares for N579.4 million, trailed by Fidelity Bank, which transacted 29.0 million stocks worth N238.1 million. AIICO Insurance traded 15.6 million equities valued at N10.6 million, Dangote Sugar exchanged 10.6 million equities worth N658.0 million, and Transcorp traded 10.5 million shares valued at N65.4 million.
Investor sentiment was weak yesterday because of the negative market breadth index as there were 19 price gainers and 22 price losers led by Sovereign Trust Insurance and Stanbic IBTC, which fell by 10.00 per cent each to settle at 36 Kobo and N72.00 apiece.
Okomu Oil dropped 9.96 per cent to sell at N236.80, Oando depreciated by 9.24 per cent to trade at N8.35, Omatek went down by 8.70 per cent to quote at 42 Kobo.
Conversely, Royal Exchange gained 8.51 per cent to finish at 51 Kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance increased by 6.96 per cent to N1.23, NASCON grew by 5.45 per cent to N58.00, Flour Mills improved by 4.20 per cent to N31.00, and Dangote Sugar chalked up 3.13 per cent to N62.60.
