By Dipo Olowookere
Profit-taking on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited was maintained on Wednesday and this time, it was more on the banking and energy stocks.
The situation watered down the value of Stanbic IBTC by 10.00 per cent during the session, closing at N45 and was trailed by CWG, which lost 9.61 per cent to settle at N2.07.
Unilever Nigeria declined by 8.21 per cent to sell for N12.30, Courtville went down by 8.00 per cent to 23 kobo, while International Breweries dropped 7.02 per cent to trade at N5.30.
Business Post reports that at the close of the market for the midweek session, there were 22 price losers, while the price gainers were just 16 led by Lasaco Assurance, which appreciated by 9.62 per cent to quote at N1.71.
Linkage Assurance gained 9.43 per cent yesterday to sell at 58 kobo, Caverton improved by 9.09 per cent to N1.92, Sterling Bank rose by 8.11 per cent to N1.60, while Regency Alliance Insurance gained 6.67 per cent to finish at 32 kobo.
Only one of the key sectors of the market, industrial goods, closed positive on Wednesday and it grew by 0.29 per cent, while the insurance sector closed flat, with energy, banking and consumer goods counters depreciating by 2.29 per cent, 1.69 per cent and 0.52 per cent respectively.
The stock market depreciated by 0.92 per cent yesterday, with the All-Share Index (ASI) going down by 367.97 points to 39,433.81 points from 39,801.78 points and the market capitalisation depreciating by N192 billion to N20.638 trillion from N20.830 trillion.
Business Post observed that FBN Holdings further witnessed sell-offs as a result of its recent board crisis, which saw the overhauling of the team by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Yesterday, it again closed as the most traded stock on the NGX with the sale of 71.3 million units valued at N523.8 million and was trailed by Access Bank, which announced the commencement of operations in South Africa. The lender sold 40.9 million units valued at N310.0 million during the session.
Eko Corporation traded 40.0 million shares worth N236.0 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 25.0 million stocks for N544.4 million, while UBA transacted 18.1 million equities valued at N130.3 million.
When trading activities were rounded up on Wednesday, a total of 349.6 million shares worth N3.5 billion exchanged hands in 4,554 deals as against the 426.5 million stocks worth N4.7 billion traded in 5,616 deals on Tuesday.
