Nigerian Equities Drop 0.11% on Low Trading Activity

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited recorded a low trading activity on Friday, with the bears dominating the landscape amid profit-taking, resulting in a 0.11 per cent loss at the close of business.

According to the trading data, the trading volume, value and number of deals went down by 34.91 per cent, 37.78 per cent and 17.35 per cent respectively as a total of 225.7 million units of Nigerian equities worth N2.4 billion were traded in 4,093 deals compared with the 346.7 million stocks worth N3.8 billion traded in 4,952 deals a day earlier.

Fidelity Bank finished the session as the most traded stock with 24.9 million units worth N71.2 million, RT Briscoe exchanged 23.6 million units worth N6.9 million, Transcorp traded 16.4 million units valued at N18.5 million, Chams transacted 15.2 million units worth N3.1 million, while Courteville traded 12.9 million units valued at N6.8 million.

Business Post reports that the banking and industrial goods indices grew yesterday by 0.18 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively, while the insurance, consumer goods and energy counters depreciated by 0.90 per cent, 0.58 per cent and 0.24 per cent respectively.

When the market ended the session at 2:30 pm yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 49.88 points to 47,279.92 points from 47,329.80 points, while the market capitalisation depleted by N27 billion to N25.477 trillion from N25.504 trillion.

The market breadth was negative yesterday as there were 18 price gainers and 24 price losers led by Presco, which fell by 10.00 per cent to settle at N94.50.

NEM Insurance depreciated by 9.76 per cent to N3.33, International Breweries fell by 9.40 per cent to N5.30, University Press dropped 5.66 per cent to N2.50, while Chams went down by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.

On the flip side, SCOA Nigeria led the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of 9.65 per cent to N1.25, Livingtrust Insurance grew by 8.77 per cent to N1.24, Jaiz Bank gained 5.97 per cent to trade at 71 kobo, Guinea Insurance improved by 4.76 per cent to 22 kobo, while Champion Breweries also increased by 4.76 per cent to N2.20.