By Dipo Olowookere
Investors booked profit on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday a day after the market rose by over 6 per cent.
During the trading session on Thursday, the exchange triggered its circuit breaker for the first time as a result of the over 5 per cent growth it witnessed before the close of trading.
However, the next day, the market slipped by 0.86 per cent as market participants quickly sold off to take profit and this left 38 stocks bleeding, while 26 equities closed with green colour.
MTN Nigeria, which was the heaviest price loser, depreciating by N7 to settle at N155 per share, while Guinness Nigeria declined by N1.90 to sell at N20.10 per unit.
Furthermore, GTBank slipped by N1.80 to N36.40 per share, Ardova declined by N1.60 to N14.80 per unit, while Zenith Bank lost N1 to trade at N27.15 per share.
On the flip side, Airtel Africa led the table of the five highest price gainers on Friday with a value appreciation of N44.50 to quote at N489.90 per unit.
Dangote Sugar grew by 85 kobo to trade at N22.20 per share, BUA Cement also appreciated by 85 kobo to sell at N52 per unit, Fidson gained 54 kobo to close at N5.98 per share, while PZ Cussons appreciated by 50 kobo to finish at N5.75 per unit.
The activity chart was mixed yesterday following the decline in the trading value by 6.38 per cent to N16.3 billion from the previous day’s N17.4 billion.
However, the trading volume improved by 4.27 per cent to 1.24 billion units from 1.19 billion units, while the number of deals increased by 25.50 per cent to 13,433 deals from 10,704 deals.
Transcorp was the most active stock of the day, trading 191.7 million units worth N239.6 million and was followed by Zenith Bank, which sold 163.5 million shares valued at N4.5 billion.
Access Bank transacted 104.2 million shares worth N975.8 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 100.9 million equities for N826.8 million, while UBA traded 78.5 million shares valued at N718.4 million.
Business Post observed that most of the sell-offs witnessed at the market yesterday were from banking stocks, depressing the sector by 5.35 per cent.
The insurance space also took a hit of 3.20 per cent, while the energy counter declined by 0.31 per cent. However, the industrial goods index grew by 0.63 per cent, while the consumer goods space appreciated by 0.07 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 305 points to 35,037.46 points from 35,342.46 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N160 billion to N18.308 trillion from N18.468 trillion.
