By Dipo Olowookere
It was a bad day for investors at the nation’s stock market on Friday as their portfolios depleted as a result of sustained profit-taking at the market.
This turned the market sentiment negative after 33 equities depreciated in value during the last trading day of the week as against the 21 stocks that appreciated in value of the close of business.
Business Post reports that the sell-offs by investors yesterday, especially in Japaul, Transcorp and others, weakened the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by 0.24 per cent when trading activities were ended for the day.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 97.16 points to 41,001.99 points from 41,099.15 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N50 billion to close at N21.449 trillion versus N21.499 trillion it closed on Thursday.
Apart from the investor sentiment, which waned yesterday, the level of activity also declined significantly as the trading volume dropped 47.26 per cent to 591.5 million shares from 1.1 billion stocks of the previous session. The trading value went down by 20.72 per cent to N5.1 billion from N6.4 billion, while the number of deals declined by 22.11 per cent to 5,767 deals from 7,404 deals.
Transcorp further closed as the most active stock on Friday with the sale of 169.3 million shares worth N195.9 million and was trailed by Japaul, which sold 47.3 million stocks valued at N45.0 million.
UBA exchanged 36.6 million equities worth N321.8 million, FBN Holdings transacted 34.3 million stocks for N250.8 million, while Zenith Bank exchanged 25.7 million shares for N680.8 million.
On the price movement chart, Lafarge Africa was the heaviest price loser due to the N1.95 decline in its equity value, closing at N26 per unit.
MRS Oil lost N1.20 to close at N11.20 per share, Livestock Feeds depreciated by 28 kobo to sell for N2.52 per unit, NEM Insurance declined by 26 kobo to N2.43 per share, while UBA dropped 25 kobo to trade at N8.70 per unit.
Conversely, Flour Mills finished the day on top of the gainers’ chart after it added 40 kobo to its share price to settle at N32 per unit.
NCR Nigeria gained 28 kobo to sell for N3.12 per share, Cutix appreciated by 20 kobo to finish at N2.26 per unit, Champion Breweries improved by 17 kobo to close at N1.95 per share, while Red Star Express gained 10 kobo to sell at N3.40 per unit.
A look at the performances of the key sectors of the bourse showed that only the consumer goods space closed higher by 0.06 per cent as others closed negative.
The insurance index depreciated by 7.93 per cent, the industrial goods counter lost 0.50 per cent, the oil/gas ecosystem fell by 0.29 per cent, while the banking space lost 0.17 per cent.
