By Dipo Olowookere
The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated by N56 billion on Tuesday to N20.434 trillion from N20.490 trillion.
One of the reasons for this was the profit-taking by investors as they took stock of transactions for the month of August and prepare for a fresh trading session for the month of September.
It was observed by Business Post that there were selloffs across the key sectors of the market yesterday with the consumer goods space falling by 1.94 per cent.
The energy counter depreciated by 0.41 per cent, the banking space lost 0.39 per cent, the insurance index decreased by 0.33 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) shrank by 107.06 points as it finished at 39,219.61 points compared with 39,326.67 points it closed the preceding day.
According to data from the exchange, the market fell on Tuesday despite an improvement in the level of transactions as the volume of shares rose by 82.80 per cent to 425.7 million units from 232.9 million.
Also, the value of stocks increased by 6.31 per cent to N2.0 billion from N1.9 billion, while the number of deals jumped by 35.87 per cent to 4,553 deals from 3,351 deals.
The significant rise in the activity level was due to the unusual volume of trades in Transcorp as it sold 111.1 million units worth N100.0 million at the close of business on Tuesday.
Chams transacted 57.6 million shares valued at N12.1 million, Honeywell Flour exchanged 31.6 million equities valued at N130.8 million, Champion Breweries traded 23.8 million stocks worth N48.6 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 20.7 million units valued at N48.5 million.
The market breadth was negative yesterday with 17 appreciating stocks and 27 depreciating equities led by Nigerian Breweries, which lost 9.93 per cent to quote at N49.45.
Livestock Feeds depreciated by 9.83 per cent to N2.11, Lasaco Assurance fell by 9.74 per cent to N1.39, UPDC declined by 7.46 per cent to N1.86, while Neimeth went down by 7.04 per cent to N1.85.
Conversely, Transcorp Hotels led the gainers’ chart on Tuesday with a price appreciation of 10.00 per cent to trade at N5.17, followed by Honeywell Flour, which gained 9.74 per cent to trade at N4.28.
Morison Industries appreciated by 9.73 per cent to N2.03, FTN Cocoa grew by 9.62 per cent to quote at 57 kobo, while Skyway Aviation improved by 9.46 per cent to N4.05.
