By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session after the Christmas holidays at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a negative note on Wednesday as a result of profit-taking in Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings, UBA, Nestle Nigeria, Oando and others.
The selling pressure on 21 equities weakened Nigerian stocks by 0.34 per cent at the close of trading activities yesterday amid a very bullish investor sentiment.
Business Post reports that the bourse finished the trading session with 40 appreciating shares, indicating a positive market breadth index.
However, the main performance indicators, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated in the midweek trading day by 254.63 points to 73,768.64 points from 74,023.27 points, as the market capitalisation went down by N140 billion to N40.367 trillion from the preceding session’s N40.507 trillion.
The last trading session before yesterday was last Friday and some traders, who had overshot their spending budget, may have liquidated their equities during the session, resulting in the loss.
Analysis of the trading data showed that the industrial goods sector fell by 1.10 per cent, and the consumer goods index declined by 0.15 per cent.
However, the insurance space witnessed buying pressure to close higher by 3.06 per cent, the energy counter grew by 0.24 per cent and the banking sector appreciated by 0.17 per cent.
The heaviest price decline was suffered by UAC Nigeria, going down by 10.00 per cent to N13.50, and Deap Capital shrank by 7.25 per cent to 64 Kobo. Caverton contracted by 6.59 per cent to N1.70, Royal Exchange lost 6.25 per cent to settle at 60 Kobo, and Tantalizers crumbled by 6.12 per cent to 46 Kobo.
After chalking up 10.00 per cent, Eterna ended as the biggest price gainer to close at N13.20, AXA Mansard rose by 9.96 per cent to N5.19, Multiverse expanded by 9.95 per cent to N15.36, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank grew by 9.93 per cent to N4.98, and Industrial and Medical Gases soared by 9.85 per cent to N11.15.
During the trading session, investors traded 432.9 million shares valued at N12.9 billion in 8,901 deals versus the 423.3 million shares worth N16.6 billion traded last Friday in 6,333 deals, indicating a decline in the trading value by 22.29 per cent, an increase in the trading volume and the number of deals by 2.27 per cent and 40.55 per cent apiece.
Jaiz Bank was the most active stock on Wednesday, selling 35.4 million units for N58.7 million, followed by Transcorp, which transacted 31.1 million units for N279.1 million. Unity Bank exchanged 25.1 million units valued at N40.5 million, GTCO traded 20.5 million units worth N819.3 million, and United Capital transacted 18.8 million units valued at N466.5 million.
Modupe Gbadeyanka