Nigerian Exchange Tumbles 0.28% as Price Losers Outweigh Gainers

By Dipo Olowookere

The bears tightened their grip on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday, further inflicting a 0.28 per cent loss on the platform at the close of business.

Financial stocks were responsible for the decline recorded yesterday, with the insurance counter down by 1.01 per cent and the banking space giving up 0.58 per cent.

However, the industrial goods sector gained 0.66 per cent, and the consumer goods and the energy indices improved by 0.04 per cent, respectively.

The gains achieved by these three sectors could not stop the bourse from going down, as the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 701.53 points to 251,211.67 points from 251,913.20 points, and the market capitalisation moderated by N426 billion to N163.105 trillion from N163.531 trillion.

There were 25 price gainers and 28 price losers on Wednesday, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.

Learn Africa lost 10.00 per cent to finish at N7.65, Thomas Wyatt declined by 9.80 per cent to N2.67, Sovereign Trust Insurance depreciated by 6.78 per cent to N2.20, Guinea Insurance slumped by 6.67 per cent to 70 Kobo, and Fidelity Bank decreased by .07 per cent to N7.12.

Conversely, Haldane McCall gained 10.00 per cent to settle at N3.41, CMFC surged by 9.92 per cent to N4.32, Cornerstone Insurance appreciated by 9.80 per cent to N5.60, Livingtrust Mortgage Bank increased by 9.79 per cent to N3.14, and ABC Transport grew by 9.76 per cent to N6.75.

The busiest stock for the trading day was VFD Group, with a turnover of 367.3 million units valued at N4.9 billion. UAC Nigeria traded 158.2 million units worth N21.5 billion, Abbey Bank sold 72.4 million units for N507.1 million, Chams exchanged 63.9 million units valued at N199.8 million, and GTCO transacted 39.6 million units worth N5.3 billion.

A total of 1.0 billion shares valued at N53.6 billion exchanged hands in 44,469 deals on Wednesday compared with the 548.7 million shares worth N34.3 billion transacted in 47,301 deals on Tuesday, implying an increase in the trading volume and value by 82.85 per cent and 56.27 per cent, respectively, and a decline in the number of deals by 5.99 per cent.