Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited were relatively lukewarm on Tuesday as the market struggled to find direction, primarily due to the issues surrounding the recently-concluded presidential election.
The outcome of the poll is still being contested by the two major opponents, Mr Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who firmly believed that he was massively rigged out to make way for the emergence of Mr Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Though both have headed to the courts to seek redress, this is giving investors at the Nigerian bourse something to worry about, prompting them to embark on cautious trading.
At the market yesterday, there were sell-offs in the banking, energy and consumer goods sectors, prompting their indices to fall by 1.03 per cent, 0.42 per cent, and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
However, the insurance counter appreciated by 0.48 per cent at the close of business, while the industrial goods space grew by 0.33 per cent.
When the closing gong was struck, the All-Share Index (ASI) marginally shrank by 1.63 points to 55,603.94 points from 55,605.57 points, as the market capitalisation slightly contracted by N1 billion to N30.290 trillion from N30.291 trillion.
Analysis of the data obtained by Business Post showed that investor sentiment was fragile as the local stock exchange closed with 22 price losers and 10 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth.
MRS Oil lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N31.05, NCR Nigeria declined by 9.88 per cent to N2.92, Multiverse fell by 9.85 per cent to N3.57, Veritas Kapital went down by 9.09 per cent to 20 Kobo, and Cutix dwindled by 9.09 per cent to N2.00.
On the flip side, Caverton gained 9.62 per cent to close at N1.14, UAC Nigeria grew by 7.60 per cent to N9.20, Coronation Insurance expanded by 5.00 per cent to 42 Kobo, Axa Mansard jumped by 4.50 per cent to N2.09, and Chams rose by 3.85 per cent to 27 Kobo.
At the market yesterday, Transcorp was the busiest after it sold 14.4 million stocks and was followed by Zenith Bank, which exchanged 13.3 million equities. GTCO traded 11.9 million shares, UBA transacted 11.1 million stocks, and Fidelity Bank sold 10.2 million stocks.
A total of 159.5 million equities worth N2.5 billion exchanged hands in 4,187 deals during the trading day, in contrast to the 123.6 million equities worth N2.5 billion transacted in 4,076 deals on Monday, indicating an increase in the trading volume and the number of deals by 29.07 per cent and 2.72 per cent apiece, as the trading value was flat.
