By Dipo Olowookere
The bulls struggled to maintain their grip on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, with a marginal increase of 0.01 per cent on Wednesday.
Sustained bargain-hunting during the midweek session, especially in the insurance and consumer goods sectors, kept hopes alive as investor sentiment was weak.
Traders are already weighing and evaluating their risk appetite for Nigerian stocks due to warning signals from institutions and analysts like JP Morgan.
Another factor that affected the equity market during the trading day was the diversion of funds to the fixed-income market for treasury bills sold by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the primary market.
It was no surprise that the local bourse escaped the bears by the whiskers yesterday, as the market breadth index was negative, with 26 price losers and 22 price gains.
ABC Transcorp was on the driver’s seat of the price advancers’ bus on Wednesday after it gained 9.62 per cent to close at 57 Kobo, Thomas Wyatt appreciated by 9.30 per cent to N1.41, Transcorp Hotels rose by 8.99 per cent to N40.00, Courteville improved by 8.33 per cent to 65 Kobo, and Omatek went up by 7.14 per cent to 30 Kobo.
Leading the decliners’ group yesterday was Conoil, which shed 10.00 per cent to trade at N99.00. Daar Communications lost 9.38 per cent to finish at 29 Kobo, Red Star Express fell by 8.75 per cent to N2.92, Tantalizers took an 8.33 per cent haircut to sell at 33 Kobo, and Eterna dropped 8.24 per cent to quote at N15.60.
Business Post reports that the industrial goods space was flat during the session, the energy sector lost 1.66 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.68 per cent, while the insurance counter rose by 0.39 per cent, and the consumer goods sector appreciated by 0.40 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 4.14 points to 65,492.81 points from 65,488.67 points, and the market capitalisation expanded by N3 billion to N35.845 trillion from N35.842 trillion.
The market activity chart for Wednesday was mixed as the value of transactions was flat at N4.1 billion, while the volume of transactions increased by 18.67 per cent to 348.3 million shares from 293.5 million shares, and the number of trades rose by 5.80 per cent to 6,237 deals from the 5,895 deals reported on Tuesday.
For another trading session, Transcorp remained the busiest stock after it exchanged 144.7 million units valued at N682.6 million, Universal Insurance traded 27.5 million units worth N5.6 million, Dangote Sugar transacted 16.1 million units worth N632.6 million, Fidelity Bank traded 15.8 million units valued at N111.2 million, and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance also sold 15.8 million units for N13.0 million.
