By Dipo Olowookere
Nigerian stocks lost 0.03 per cent on Wednesday on a day the local bourse was celebrating its 60 years of operations.
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) marked its commencement of operations three decades ago (on August 25, 1961) but the bears chose the day to show up, relegating the bulls to the background.
Profit-taking in some large-cap equities contributed to the marginal collapse of the exchange at the midweek session, causing the All-Share Index (ASI) to close lower by 10.86 points to 39,449.82 points from 39,460.68 points and weakening the market capitalisation by N6 billion to N20.554 trillion from N20.560 trillion.
Business Post reports that almost all the sectors of the market recorded the lukewarm performance yesterday as only the industrial goods sector closed flat.
The insurance sector lost 0.53 per cent, the consumer goods counter depreciated by 0.14 per cent, the banking space went down by 0.12 per cent, while the energy index declined by 0.10 per cent.
The market witnessed 19 price losers led by Academy Press, which lost 9.76 per cent to trade at 37 kobo, Pharma Deko depreciated by 9.52 per cent to N1.71, Mutual Benefits Assurance dropped 8.57 per cent to 32 kobo, ABC Transport lost 7.69 per cent to sell for 36 kobo, while Unity Bank depreciated by 6.67 per cent to 56 kobo.
There were 17 price gainers at the close of transactions on Wednesday and they were led by Capital Hotel and Eterna, which grew by 10.00 per cent each to close at N3.19 and N6.82 respectively.
Morison Industries appreciated by 9.74 per cent to trade at N1.69, Transcorp Hotels rose by 9.30 per cent to N4.70, while UPDC improved by 9.22 per cent to quote at N1.54.
As for the activity chart, it was mixed yesterday as the number of deals remained unchanged at 3,881 trades, the trading volume increased by 0.77 per cent to 198.3 million units from 196.8 million units, while the trading value decreased by 27.33 per cent to N1.1 billion from N1.5 billion.
Sovereign Trust Insurance closed as the most traded stock on Wednesday with 48.4 million shares valued at N11.2 million and was trailed by Mutual Benefits with 27.1 million shares worth N8.7 million.
Jaiz Bank traded 10.9 million stocks worth N6.8 million, Regency Alliance transacted 9.0 million equities valued at N3.9 million, while Transcorp exchanged 6.9 million shares for N6.6 million.
