By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited opened the first trading session of the new week on a wrong footing with a 0.040 per cent loss influenced by renewed sell pressure on some blue-chip stocks like Access Bank, Dangote Cement and GTCO.
During the trading day, a total of 18 equities closed in the red zone compared with the 21 stocks that landed in the green territory. However, the bears had more influence on the outcome on the market despite their few numbers.
Champion Breweries closed as the worst-performing share with a loss of 7.73 per cent to settle at N2.03, followed by Eterna with a 7.20 per cent decline to N6.96, Linkage Assurance went down by 6.45 per cent to 58 kobo, Oando fell by 5.00 per cent to N4.56, Caverton declined by 4.86 per cent to N1.76.
On the flip side, Honeywell Flour Mills ended the session as the best-performing equity after it grew by 9.86 per cent to N3.90, UPDC gained 9.84 per cent to trade at N2.01, ABC Transport rose by 9.09 per cent to 36 kobo, Presco moved up by 8.90 per cent to N79.50, while FTN Cocoa appreciated by 8.33 per cent to 52 kobo.
From the performance of the sectors, the consumer goods and insurance improved by 1.17 per cent and 0.84 per cent, while the industrial goods, energy and banking counters depreciated by 1.43 per cent, 1.15 per cent and 0.15 per cent apiece.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 158.98 points to 39,326.67 points from 39,485.65 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N83 billion to N20.490 trillion from N20.573 trillion.
Business Post reports that Transcorp was the busiest stock at the exchange yesterday with the sale of 51.7 million units valued at N46.8 million and was trailed by Honeywell Flour with 43.7 million worth N167.9 million.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance transacted 17.6 million equities valued at N10.6 million, Oando exchanged 16.1 million units for N71.5 million, while UPDC traded 15.1 million units valued at N29.913 trillion.
When trading activities were wrapped up for the session, a total of 301.0 million stocks worth N1.5 billion exchanged hands in 4,715 deals compared with the 232.9 million stocks worth N1.9 billion transacted last Friday in 3,351, indicating a 29.27 per cent rise in the volume of trades, a 17.03 per cent decline in the value of transactions and a 40.70 per cent growth in the number of deals.
