NGX in Stalemate as Bulls, Bears Share Spoils

By Dipo Olowookere

The spoils of the battle between the bulls and the bears were shared on Tuesday after the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed in a stalemate, Business Post reports.

The market closed flat after the key performance indicators could not record any tangible increases as the All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 41,814.94 points compared with the previous day’s 41,814.74 points, while the market capitalisation remained at N21.821 trillion.

This occurred despite the market breadth closing positive with 22 price gainers and 21 price losers, with the risers led by Universal Insurance and University Press by 10.00 per cent each to close at 22 kobo and N1.65 apiece.

Courtville gained 9.76 per cent to sell for 45 kobo, Abbey Mortgage Bank rose by 9.30 per cent to 94 kobo, while International Breweries appreciated by 9.28 per cent to quote at N5.30.

Conversely, ABC Transport led the laggards with an 8.82 per cent loss to sell for 31 kobo, FTN Cocoa went down by 6.25 per cent to 45 kobo, Cutix lost 5.47 per cent to trade at N6.05, NGX Group fell by 4.61 per cent to N19.65, while Sovereign Trust Insurance declined by 4.17 per cent to 23 kobo.

It was observed that only the energy space closed in the red territory yesterday as it fell by 0.38 per cent, while the other counters ended in the green zone at the close of transactions.

The insurance, banking, industrial goods and consumer goods sectors appreciated by 0.51 per cent, 0.21 per cent, 0.06 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively on Tuesday.

As for the activity chart, it was in red at the session as the trading volume went down by 47.63 per cent to 353.2 million units from 674.5 million units, the trading value dropped 26.63 per cent to N5.6 billion from N7.6 billion, while the number of deals declined by 2.03 per cent to 5,322 deals from 5,432 deals.

When the market closed for the day at 2:30 pm, FBN Holdings remained as the most traded stock with the sale of 73.1 million units of its shares valued at N906.8 million, followed by GTCO, which sold 25.0 million units of its stocks for N715.3 million.

Universal Insurance traded 22.8 million shares worth N4.9 million, UBA transacted 20.3 million equities valued at N171.2 million, while Transcorp exchanged 18.4 million stocks worth N18.9 million.