By Dipo Olowookere
Profit-taking persisted on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, as investors refused to tone down their profit-taking activities.
It was observed that the market is gradually entering panic mode due to macroeconomic instability in the country, especially with the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar going above N1,000 in the parallel market.
A stockbroker with one of the leading brokerage firms in the country, who asked not to be named, said the local bourse was witnessing panic selling due to investors liquidating their shares for Dollars.
“This trend will continue for a while as long as the value of the Naira to the Dollar maintains its slope fall in the black market. Traders are pulling out their funds to purchase FX, leading to the 0.10 per cent shrinking of the market today (Friday),” the stockbroker told Business Post after trading activities were brought to an end.
Data showed that the industrial goods and the insurance indices contributed to the downfall of the exchange yesterday as they fell by 2.80 per cent and 0.43 per cent, respectively.
They weakened the 2.26 per cent and 1.40 per cent growth recorded by the consumer goods and the banking counters apiece. As for the energy sector, it closed flat.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 66.49 points to 66,382.14 points from 66,448.63 points, and the market capitalisation declined by N37 billion to N36.331 trillion from N36.368 trillion.
The activity level showed that Customs Street was slightly busy, with the trading volume and value rising by 6.98 per cent and 32.36 per cent apiece, as the number of deals went down by 7.37 per cent.
Investors transacted 292.9 million stocks valued at N4.5 billion in 6,323 deals on the last session of the week versus the 273.8 million stocks worth N3.4 billion traded in 6,826 deals on Thursday.
Fidelity Bank finished as the most active stock after trading 48.6 million equities worth N393.9 million, Universal Insurance exchange 28.1 million shares valued at N6.2 million, Wema Bank sold 26.7 million equities for N122.7 million, Access Holdings transacted 21.0 million shares valued at N331.7 million, and UBA exchanged 11.7 million equities for N191.3 million.
BUA Cement suffered the biggest decline at the bourse on Friday, losing 10.00 per cent to finish at N85.50, Tripple G shed 9.96 per cent to trade at N2.17, Oando declined by 9.77 per cent to N7.85, John Holt depreciated by 9.76 per cent to N1.48, and Cornerstone Insurance received a 9.55 per cent haircut to settle at N1.61.
Adedapo Adesanya