By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited was down by 0.17 per cent on Tuesday after traders reactivated their selling button amid watch happenings in the global and domestic scenes.
It was observed that investors rebalanced their portfolios and repriced their risk levels, cutting down their exposure to Nigerian stocks.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) shrank by 116.71 points to 66,984.62 points from 67,101.33 points on Monday, as the market capitalisation declined by N65 billion to N36.801 trillion from N36.866 trillion.
Profit-taking was the order of the day as the banking, insurance and consumer goods sectors depreciated by 1.11 per cent, 0.71 per cent, and 0.11 per cent, respectively, while the energy and the industrial goods counters closed flat apiece.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment was weak yesterday after the bourse ended with 27 price losers and 13 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
John Holt closed on top of the losers’ chart after it dropped 10.00 per cent to N1.44, Presco declined by 9.54 per cent to N182.00, DAAR Communications fell by 8.70 per cent to 21 Kobo, DEAP Capital slipped by 7.41 per cent to 25 Kobo, and Jaiz Bank slumped by 6.25 per cent to N1.50.
On the flip side, McNichols led the gainers’ group after it improved its value by 10.00 per cent to 66 Kobo, Capital Hotels rose by 9.82 per cent to N3.02, Chams expanded by 9.38 per cent to trade at N1.40, ABC Transport gained 8.82 per cent to settle at 74 Kobo, and Oando appreciated by 7.61 per cent to quote at N9.90.
Fidelity Bank was the busiest stock of the trading session with 53.4 million units valued at N442.9 million, Access Holdings transacted 31.1 million units worth N490.5 million, UBA exchanged 26.8 million worth N459.7 million, Oando traded 13.6 million units for N133.4 million, and Zenith Bank sold 11.3 million units worth N359.0 million.
At the close of transactions, the value of transactions increased by 122.86 per cent to N7.8 billion from 3.5 million, while the volume of trades went down by 4.18 per cent to 257.4 million shares from 268.7 million, and the number of deals decreased by 6,498 deals from 6,911 deals.
