Economy
Nigerian Breweries, 16 Others Further Drown NGX by 0.25%
By Dipo Olowookere
Sustained profit-taking further depleted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday by 0.25 per cent as investors sold off their Nigerian Breweries shares and 16 others in a bid to rebalance their portfolios.
However, the investor sentiment remained strong as the market breadth was positive with 20 price gainers. The decline suffered by the local bourse was due to the impact of the depreciating equities on the general outcome of the exchange.
The sell-offs were mainly on the heavyweights of the market like Nigerian Breweries, Zenith Bank, GTCO, Lafarge Africa, Flour Mills and others.
The losers’ chart was led by Nigerian Breweries, which depreciated by 9.96 per cent to settle at N62.40, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills went down by 9.09 per cent to N10.55, Japaul also dropped 9.09 per cent to sell at 30 kobo, Prestige Assurance retreated by 6.98 per cent to 40 kobo, while Multiverse shrank by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.
On the flip side, Transcorp Hotels, which is being used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the screening of its presidential candidates, topped the gainers’ log as its share price rose by 6.84 per cent to N6.25.
Champion Breweries appreciated by 5.05 per cent to N3.95, CWG also improved by 5.05 per cent to N1.04, Ecobank chalked up 5.04 per cent to trade at N12.50, while Lasaco Assurance jumped by 4.81 per cent to N1.09.
The heavy transactions seen lately in Transcorp continued yesterday as it led the activity chart with the sale of 86.7 million shares valued at N111.7 million. Jaiz Bank traded 22.8 million equities worth N20.3 million, Sovereign Trust Insurance exchanged 20.0 million stocks for N5.0 million, FCMB sold 19.8 million equities valued at N68.5 million, while Sterling Bank traded 17.2 million shares worth N25.7 million.
At the close of business, a total of 318.3 million stocks worth N3.7 billion were bought and sold in 5,190 deals as against the 27.6 billion stocks worth N194.4 billion traded on Monday in 4,586 deals, representing an increase in the number of deals by 13.17 per cent and a decrease in the trading volume and value by 98.85 per cent and 98.09 per cent respectively.
Business Post reports that the energy index closed in the green territory on Tuesday after it gained 0.05 per cent, while the consumer goods, industrial goods, banking and insurance sectors depreciated by 1.78 per cent, 0.16 per cent, 0.15 per cent and 0.13 per cent apiece.
When the closing gong was struck by 2:30 pm, the All Share Index (ASI) was down by 135.00 points to 53,637.14 points from 53,772.14 points, while the market capitalisation deflated by N73 billion to N28.916 trillion from N28.989 trillion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Okitipupa Plc was the sole price gainer at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday, August 7, lifting the trading platform by 0.44 per cent at the close of transactions.
The share price of the palm oil producer appreciated during the trading session by N25.00 or 9.0 per cent to N277.00 per unit compared with the previous day’s N252.00 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation gained N12.29 billion to close at N2,807 trillion, in contrast to the previous session’s N2.795 trillion, while the NASD Security Index (NSI) added 93.63 points to finish at 4,678.08 points compared with Thursday’s 4,657.59 points.
The bourse recorded a price loser yesterday, and this was Mass Telecoms Innovation Plc, which crashed by 3 Kobo or 9.4 per cent to settle at 32 Kobo per share versus the previous day’s 35 Kobo per share.
The volume of securities traded by investors plunged by 81.5 per cent to 535,7560 units from 2.9 million units, the value of securities slumped by 93.9 per cent to N6.0 million from N99.2 million, and the number of deals decreased by 41.9 per cent to 36 deals from 62 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 77.0 million units exchanged for N5.5 billion.
GNI Plc also ended the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, trailed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units sold for N415.7 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
A 0.15 per cent growth was achieved by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, driven by continued buying interest in banking stocks such as First Holdco and others.
The banking index was up by 1.53 per cent during the session, offsetting the losses recorded by the others. The industrial goods segment fell by 0.37 per cent, the insurance counter shrank by 0.21 per cent, and the energy sector contracted by 0.04 per cent, while the consumer goods space closed flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) moved up by 364.26 points to 245,573.60 points from 245,209.34 points, and the market capitalisation increased by N235 billion to N158.513 trillion from N158.278 trillion.
Despite the gains printed by Customs Street during the trading day, investor sentiment was weak, as there were 22 price gainers and 24 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
UPDC surged by 9.23 per cent to N3.55, CWG soared by 6.56 per cent to N19.50, AXA Mansard appreciated by 4.80 per cent to N13.10, Neimeth advanced by 4.24 per cent to N8.60, and Cutix improved by 4.00 per cent to N2.60.
Conversely, Red Star Express lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N18.00, CAP declined by 9.98 per cent to N115.45, John Holt shrank by 9.82 per cent to N10.10, ABC Transport depreciated by 9.57 per cent to N5.20, and Legend Internet crashed by 8.70 per cent to N4.20.
A total of 1.5 billion equities worth N26.7 billion exchanged hands in 42,580 deals on Friday versus the 531.8 million equities valued at N20.5 billion traded in 44,826 deals on Thursday, representing a spike in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 182.06 per cent, 30.24 per cent, and 5.01 per cent, respectively.
The busiest stock during the session was Fortis Global Insurance, with a turnover of 824.5 million units valued at N2.1 billion, FCMB traded 217.9 million units worth N2.8 billion, Access Holdings exchanged 176.2 million units for N4.7 billion, Chams sold 32.5 million units worth N132.1 million, and First Holdco transacted 25.0 million units valued at N3.7 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira further closed south against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Friday, August 7, by 81 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to N1,365.69/$1 from N1,364.88/$1.
It was a similar situation for the Nigerian Naira in the official market during the session as against the Pound Sterling; it lost N1.08 to quote at N1,839.17 versus the previous day’s N1,838.09/£1, and against the Euro, it slipped by N1.23 to close at N1,575.73/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,574.80/€1.
Further, at the GTBank forex counter, the Nigerian currency weakened against the Dollar yesterday by N2 to settle at N1,371/$1 compared with Thursday’s N1,369/$1, and at the black market, it traded flat at N1,400/$1.
The country’s legal tender came under FX demand pressure on Friday, with turnover rising by 304.3 per cent to $399.5 million from $98.8 million the previous day, with the number of deals slightly up to 107 from 106.
Next week, traders expect the Naira to hold steady, buoyed by dollar sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), whose presence in the market could help ease demand pressure.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) neared the $65,000-mark after it gained 0.8 per cent to trade at $64,968.05, as investors took advantage of recent drops to shore up their holdings.
Previously, the decision by the US Senate to delay a vote on the Crypto Clarity Act until at least September weakened the outlook. The bill, which would set out which US regulator oversees which digital assets, needs 60 votes to pass and it is unclear whether it currently has 50.
Solana (SOL) grew by 2.5 per cent to $74.81, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 1.3 per cent to $0.0702, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 1.1 per cent to $593.80, Ethereum (ETH) expanded by 0.5 per cent to $1,916.08, Ripple (XRP) also soared by 0.5 per cent to $1.03, and TRON (TRX) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $0.3275.
However, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 1.0 per cent to $0.1997, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
