Market Sheds 0.14% as Investors Offload Financial Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

Sustained profit-taking, especially in financial stocks, further weakened the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 0.14 per cent on Thursday amid negative investor sentiment.

The insurance sector lost 1.42 per cent, the consumer goods counter went down by 0.69 per cent, the banking index fell by 0.56 per cent, while the industrial goods space declined by 0.03 per cent.

The war in Europe caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia seems to be favouring energy equities as the index appreciated by 4.94 per cent yesterday to finish as the sole riser.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) was down by 64.72 points to 47,296.07 points from the previous day’s 47,360.79 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N35 billion to close at N25.490 trillion compared with N25.525 trillion it finished on Wednesday.

RT Briscoe and CAP were the worst-performing stocks of the trading day, losing 10.00 per cent each to trade at 63 kobo and N17.55 respectively.

NGX Group fell by 9.96 per cent to settle at N20.80, Red Star Express depreciated by 9.78 per cent to N3.32, while Royal Exchange went down by 9.70 per cent to N1.49.

The best-performing stock was ABC Transport as its value went up by 9.38 per cent to 35 kobo, Lasaco Assurance improved by 7.62 per cent to N1.13, Jaiz Bank gained 5.71 per cent to sell for 74 kobo, Africa Prudential increased its value by 3.85 per cent to N6.75, while Linkage Assurance appreciated by 3.85 per cent to close at 54 kobo.

A look at the activity chart showed that Transcorp ended the day as the most traded equity, selling 28.2 million units valued at N30.2 million, followed by MTN Nigeria with 22.7 million units valued at N4.7 billion.

NGX Group sold 22.1 million shares worth N463.1 million, FBN Holdings transacted 14.0 million stocks valued at N154.6 million, while UPDC traded 12.8 million equities worth N11.9 million.

At the close of trades, investors bought and sold 243.4 million shares worth N6.9 billion in 7,056 deals compared with the 280.0 million shares worth N4.2 billion traded in 5,620 deals at the midweek session, implying a decline in the volume of stocks by 13.04 per cent and an increase in the trading value and number of deals by 65.16 per cent and 25.55 per cent respectively.