By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed panic selling from investors on Tuesday as the foreign exchange (FX) market continued to dampen mood.
The free fall of the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar in the currency market is making Naira-denominated investments unattractive and yesterday, it further inflicted a 1.30 per cent loss to the equity market.
It was observed that traders sold off some of their blue-chip equities, particularly in the financial and industrial goods sectors.
Business Post reports that the insurance index went down by 3.89 per cent, the industrial goods counter lost 3.62 per cent, the banking space shed 2.37 per cent, and the consumer goods counter depreciated by 0.87 per cent, while the energy sector appreciated by 0.21 per cent.
When trading activities ended for the day by 2:30 pm, the All-Share Index (ASI) crumbled by 1,332.56 points to close at 101,060.67 points versus the previous day’s 102,393.23 points, and the market capitalisation retreated by N729 billion to settle at N55.299 trillion compared with Monday’s closing value of N56.028 trillion.
Investor sentiment remained weak, according to analysis of the market data, as the bourse finished with 43 price losers and eight price gainers, representing a negative market breadth index.
Honeywell Flour suffered a 10.00 per cent loss to sell for N3.60, BUA Cement shed 9.98 per cent to N142.95, PZ Cussons declined by 9.75 per cent to N27.30, UPDC REIT crashed by 9.32 per cent to N5.35, and NEM Insurance slumped by 8.63 per cent to N6.35.
On the flip side, Juli gained 9.94 per cent to quote at N1.77, Eterna rose by 6.17 per cent to N17.20, Veritas Kapital advanced by 5.97 per cent to 71 Kobo, Geregu Power improved by 3.68 per cent to N985.00, and Tantalizers expanded by 2.63 per cent to 39 Kobo.
A total of 256.2 million shares valued at N6.6 billion were transacted at the exchange yesterday in 8,783 deals compared with the 273.9 million shares worth N7.4 billion traded in 9,688 deals in the preceding session, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value, and the number of deals by 6.46 per cent, 10.81 per cent, and 9.34 per cent, respectively.
Transcorp closed the day as the most active equity with the sale of 39.8 million units for N528.5 million, as UBA traded 26.0 million units valued at N624.5 million. Fidelity Bank exchanged 25.5 million shares worth N270.5 million, Zenith Bank sold 21.0 million equities for N750.5 million, and GTCO transacted 13.8 million stocks valued at N535.5 million.
