By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited significantly declined on Wednesday after the Christmas holiday on the back of profit-taking. It was the first trading session of the week as a result of the holidays observed on Monday and Tuesday.
The market went down by 1.08 per cent yesterday as investors offloaded some large-cap stocks like BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank and others.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) slipped by 455.75 points to 41,807.10 points from 42,262.85 points, while the market capitalisation dropped N238 billion to N21.822 trillion from N22.060 trillion.
Business Post reports that only the banking sector closed bullish at the midweek session, rising by 1.41 per cent, while the industrial goods, energy, insurance and consumer goods sectors depreciated by 3.91 per cent, 0.52 per cent, 0.24 per cent and 0.16 per cent respectively.
Despite the loss yesterday, the market breadth and investor sentiment were positive as there were 17 price gainers and 16 price losers led by BUA Cement, which fell by 10.00 per cent to trade at N67.05.
May & Baker lost 9.98 per cent to sell for N4.06, PZ Cussons declined by 8.96 per cent to N6.10, Jaiz Bank fell by 8.06 per cent to 57 kobo, while UPDC REIT dropped 6.25 per cent to close at N3.75.
Conversely, Union Bank led the gainers’ log after it further appreciated by 9.91 per cent to N6.10, Royal Exchange grew by 9.09 per cent to 84 kobo, Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 7.69 per cent to 28 kobo, Livestock Feeds went up by 6.86 per cent to N2.18, while Caverton jumped 2.99 per cent to N1.72.
A total of 180.2 million shares worth N1.5 billion were traded in 3,828 deals on Wednesday compared with the 111.8 million shares worth N911.9 million traded in 2,072 deals last Friday.
This showed that the volume of trades increased by 61.10 per cent, the value of transactions increased by 62.38 per cent and the number of deals jumped by 84.75 per cent.
Jaiz Bank was the most active stock yesterday, selling 17.7 million units valued at N10.5 million, followed by Union Bank, which transacted 16.8 million units worth N101.8 million.
UAC Nigeria exchanged 12.9 million stocks valued at N123.5 million, Transcorp transacted 11.4 million shares worth N11.3 million, while Sovereign Trust Insurance sold 10.0 million equities for N2.8 million.
Adedapo Adesanya