By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) kicked off the first trading session in the last week of the third quarter of the year on a negative note, with the key performance indices going down by 0.66 per cent on Monday.
This was partly caused by the reaction of investors to the 30 Kobo interim dividend declaration of the board of Access Holdings Plc.
A few days ago, its peer, UBA Plc, raised its interim dividend payment by 150 per cent to 50 Kobo and it was expected that Access Holdings would follow the same path.
However, the company disappointed traders, choosing to maintain its conservative style of holding funds for expansion through mergers and acquisitions.
This resulted in the heavy loss suffered by the banking index yesterday, 3.18 per cent, and with the 0.14 per cent decline posted by the consumer goods space, the bourse landed in the midst of the bears, which devoured the market despite the 0.18 per cent growth posted by the insurance sector, the 0.11 per cent rise recorded by the industrial goods sector. The energy counter remained flat.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 441.95 points to 66,882.64 points from 67,324.59 points, and the market capitalisation decreased by N242 billion to N36.605 trillion from N36.847 trillion.
The activity chart was mixed during the trading session, with the volume of trades going down by 60.31 per cent to 408.2 million shares from 1.0 billion, the value of transactions increasing by 22.73 per cent to N5.4 billion from N4.4 billion, and the number of deals expanding by 20.99 per cent to 7,707 deals from 6,370 deals.
Access Holdings dominated the activity chart on Monday with the sale of 113.4 million equities for N1.8 billion, UBA traded 59.6 million shares worth N1.1 billion, Unity Bank exchanged 27.8 million stocks for N28.4 million, Universal Insurance transacted 17.6 million shares valued at N3.9 million, and Transcorp traded 16.8 million equities worth N103.7 million.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment was weak yesterday due to the negative market breadth index triggered by the selling pressure on 37 stocks. Only 15 stocks ended on the gainers’ log at the close of trading activities.
On top of the losers’ table was Caverton after it fell by 9.87 per cent to settle at N1.37, Access Holdings dropped 9.86 per cent to close at N15.55, Oando lost 9.70 per cent to finish at N10.70, The Initiates depleted by 9.65 per cent to N1.03, and RT Briscoe shed 9.52 per cent to end at 38 Kobo.
On the flip side, Ikeja Hotel was the best-performing stock after it grew by 10.00 per cent to N2.75, John Holt gained 9.70 per cent to quote at N1.81, Cornerstone Insurance appreciated by 9.49 per cent to N1.50, Regency Alliance rose by 8.57 per cent to 38 Kobo, and Tantalizers inflated by 6.67 per cent to 32 Kobo.
