By Dipo Olowookere
The last trading session of this week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a negative note as the local bourse shed 0.34 per cent on Friday.
Renewed profit-taking influenced the decline posted by Customs Street as traders offloaded equities mainly in the industrial and insurance sectors, causing their respective indices to lose 0.94 per cent and 0.69 per cent.
However, the banking and consumer goods counters appreciated by 0.26 per cent and 0.18 per cent respectively, while the energy space closed flat.
But at the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 150.07 points to 44,454.67 points from 44,604.74 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N81 billion to N23.951 trillion from N24.032 trillion.
The market breadth closed negative as there were 14 price gainers and 17 price losers led by Sunu Assurance, which fell by 8.82 per cent to 31 kobo.
Cutix went down by 7.17 per cent to N2.46, Mutual Benefits lost 3.57 per cent to sell at 27 kobo, Jaiz bank depreciated by 2.86 per cent to 68 kobo, while Royal Exchange declined by 2.44 per cent to 80 kobo.
On the flip side, Fidson recorded the biggest price appreciation by 9.65 per cent to trade at N7.50, Julius Berger grew by 3.64 per cent to N22.80, Sterling Bank rose by 3.29 per cent to N1.57, UPDC appreciated by 2.61 per cent to N1.18, while Regency Assurance gained 2.22 per cent to quote at 46 kobo.
Yesterday, a total of 405.7 million stocks worth N9.8 billion were traded in 3,880 deals compared with the 321.8 million stocks worth N3.7 billion traded in 4,565 deals, implying that the trading volume and value increased by 26.10 per cent and 168.88 per cent respectively, while the number of deals decreased by 15.01 per cent.
Business Post reports that BUA Foods ended the trading day as the most active stock with a turnover of 102.6 million units valued at N6.8 billion.
Transcorp transacted 97.2 million shares worth N110.2 million, Access Bank exchanged 33.2 million stocks worth N315.8 million, FBN Holdings sold 26.6 million equities for N318.6 million, while Jaiz Bank traded 25.9 million stocks for N17.8 million.
