By Dipo Olowookere
For the fifth consecutive trading session, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended in the red territory, with a 0.07 per cent decline on Monday after investors maintained their profit-taking stance.
The loss continued during the session as traders further offloaded banking equities in their portfolios in reaction to the one-time 70 per cent tax on their foreign exchange (FX) gains by the federal government to fund the 2024 budget deficit.
Data from the exchange showed that the banking index went down by 1.01 per cent, the consumer goods counter depreciated by 0.07 per cent, and the industrial goods space crashed by 0.01 per cent, while the energy sector appreciated by 1.32 per cent, with the insurance counter growing by 0.15 per cent.
The selling pressure pressed down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 69.34 points to 98,132.15 points from 98,201.49 points, and the market capitalisation tumbled by N112 billion to N55.717 trillion from N55.605 trillion.
However, investor sentiment turned bullish after the NGX ended with 22 price gainers and 21 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index.
Caverton plunged by 10.00 per cent to N1.35, Coronation Insurance declined by 9.30 per cent to 78 Kobo, ABC Transport weakened by 9.09 per cent to 70 Kobo, Neimeth lost 7.65 per cent to N1.81, while NASCON shed 4.85 per cent to trade at N32.35.
On the other side of the coin, Africa Prudential gained 10.00 per cent to settle at N10.45, Cutix jumped by 9.90 per cent to N5.66, Eterna chalked up 9.88 per cent to sell for N17.80, Oando went up by 9.83 per cent to quote at N22.35, and Custodian Investment rose by 9.80 per cent to N11.20.
Investors transacted 379.1 million equities valued at N8.7 billion in 10,096 deals compared with the 1.1 billion equities worth N21.6 billion traded in 9,098 deals last Friday, indicating an uptick in the number of deals by 10.97 per cent, a decline in the trading volume and value by 65.64 per cent and 59.72 billion, respectively.
Business Post reports that UBA ended the session as the most active with 69.1 million shares valued at N1.5 billion, FBN Holdings traded 24.9 million equities for N512.4 million, Access Holdings exchanged 23.9 million stocks worth N441.4 million, Universal Insurance transacted 22.2 million equities valued at N7.0 million, and GTCO traded 21.0 million stocks worth N924.9 million.
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