By Dipo Olowookere
The stock market in Nigeria depreciated by 0.08 per cent on Wednesday following profit-taking mostly in consumer goods and banking equities.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited went down by 39.63 points to settle at 47,207.27 points compared with 47,246.90 points of the previous day, while the market capitalisation fell by N22 billion to close at N25.442 trillion in contrast to N25.464 trillion it finished on Tuesday.
The insurance sector appreciated during the session by 0.91 per cent, the energy space grew by 0.03 per cent, while the consumer goods counter lost 0.58 per cent, the banking index depleted by 0.35 per cent and the industrial goods counter fell by 0.02 per cent.
Africa Prudential ended the day as the worst-performing stock at the local bourse, losing 5.77 per cent to trade at N7.35, Dangote Sugar depreciated by 5.28 per cent to N17.05, Chams fell by 4.17 per cent to 23 kobo, Mutual Benefits Assurance declined by 3.70 per cent to 26 kobo, while Ecobank decreased by 2.98 per cent to N11.40.
On the flip side, eTranzact was the best-performing stock, gaining 10.00 per cent to settle at N2.20, RT Briscoe appreciated by 9.72 per cent to 79 kobo, Niger Insurance improved by 9.09 per cent to 24 kobo, May and Baker went up by 9.00 per cent to N5.45, while Wema Bank rose by 8.99 per cent to 97 kobo.
At the midweek trading session, investors transacted 230.7 million stocks worth N3.5 billion in 4,377 deals compared with the 421.8 million stocks worth N5.2 billion traded in 5,992 deals on Tuesday.
This indicated that the volume of shares transacted yesterday depreciated by 45.32 per cent, the value of stocks declined by 32.24 per cent, while the number of deals went down by 26.95 per cent.
Transcorp was the most active stock of the session, trading 23.2 million units valued at N29.1 million, followed by Fidelity Bank with the sale of 15.5 million units worth N48.1 million.
United Capital traded 14.7 million shares valued at N204.7 million, Regency Assurance exchanged 13.8 million equities worth N5.0 million, while FBN Holdings traded 13.2 million stocks valued at N150.7 million.
