Local Stock Exchange Further Loses 0.09% as Sell Offs Persist

By Dipo Olowookere

The bears tightened their grip on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday, causing the local stock exchange to further shed 0.09 per cent at the close of trades.

The sustained selling pressure, especially in the financial and energy sectors deducted 45.19 points from the All-Share Index (ASI) as it closed at 49,599.73 points compared with the previous day’s 49,644.92 points as the market capitalisation depreciated by N25 billion to finish at N26.753 trillion in contrast to Tuesday’s closing value of N26.778 trillion.

The consumer goods improved by 0.10 per cent yesterday, while the industrial goods counter closed flat but they could not rescue the market from the claws of the bears due to the 0.32 per cent loss reported by the energy index, the 0.30 per cent decline suffered by the banking sector and the 0.03 per cent fall posted by the insurance space.

It was observed that investors were cautious of their exposure to stocks during the session, resulting in low trading activity as the trading volume, value and the number of deals declined by 7.23 per cent, 38.79 per cent and 19.33 per cent respectively.

Investors exchanged a total of 128.9 million shares worth N1.7 billion in 3,426 deals in the midweek session as against the 139.0 million shares worth N2.7 billion traded in 4,247 deals on Tuesday.

Sterling Bank was still the most active stock as it sold 26.9 million units valued at N39.6 million. Zenith Bank traded 10.2 million units worth N205.2 million, GTCO exchanged 9.3 million units worth N184.5 million, Ecobank traded 7.6 million units valued at N83.8 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 6.2 million units for N21.2 million.

The heaviest price loser for the day was Chams, shedding 10.00 per cent to sell for 27 Kobo and was followed by FCMB, which lost 8.02 per cent to trade at N3.21. McNichols fell by 7.46 per cent to 62 Kobo, FTN Cocoa declined by 6.67 per cent to 28 Kobo, while Cornerstone Insurance went down by 6.06 per cent to 62 Kobo.

Conversely, PZ Cussons ended the session as the best-performing stock after it gained 9.76 per cent to close at N9.00. NPF Microfinance Bank rose by 4.58 per cent to N1.60, UAC Nigeria improved by 3.64 per cent to N11.40, ABC Transport expanded by 3.57 per cent to 29 Kobo, while Japaul crawled by 3.45 per cent to 30 Kobo.