Price Declines in Penny Stocks Crumble NGX Index by 0.15%

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session of the new week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended on a negative note on Monday with a 0.15 per cent decline.

Sell-offs in penny stocks and others were the major drivers of the poor performance of the local bourse yesterday as investors were trying to be cautious with politicians already focusing on the 2023 general elections.

Business Post reports that the market breadth was at equilibrium on Monday as the stock exchange ended the session with 18 price gainers and 18 price losers.

Learn Africa was the worst-performing stock, losing 9.68 per cent to settle at N1.96, followed by Unity Bank, which depreciated by 8.16 per cent to 45 kobo.

Caverton went down by 7.09 per cent to trade at N1.18, FCMB depleted by 6.89 per cent to sell for N3.11, while Transcorp decreased by 6.54 per cent to quote at N1.00.

On the flip side, Beta Glass ended the trading session as the best-performing stock as it gained 9.92 per cent to settle at N58.20, PZ Cussons rose by 9.68 per cent to close at N10.20, Livestock Feeds grew by 9.03 per cent to N1.69, Linkage Assurance improved by 8.00 per cent to 54 kobo, while Jaiz Bank appreciated by 6.06 per cent to 70 kobo.

At the market yesterday, investors transacted 359.9 million stocks valued at N2.6 billion in 5,163 deals in contrast to the 177.1 million stocks valued at N4.2 billion exchanged last Friday in 3,873, showing an increase in the trading volume by 103.22 per cent, a decrease in the trading value by 37.54 per cent and an increase in the number of deals by 33.31 per cent.

Transcorp ended the day as the most active stock with the sale of 92.0 million units valued at N92.8 million, Sterling Bank transacted 50.7 million units worth N76.6 million, Fidelity Bank exchanged 46.7 million units for N153.6 million, Linkage Assurance sold 30.5 million units for N15.3 million, while Access Holdings traded 15.5 million units worth N156.4 million.

During the session, the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors closed higher by 0.18 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively, while the banking, insurance and energy counters closed lower by 4.42 per cent, 0.30 per cent and 0.12 per cent apiece.

Due to the significant profit-taking in financial and energy stocks yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) crumbled by 70.37 points to 46,893.86 points from 46,964.23 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N38 billion to N25.273 trillion from N25.311 trillion.