Secure Electronic Technology, Dangote Sugar Top Losers’ Chart as Index Sheds 0.19%

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session of this week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed on a negative note on Monday after a 0.19 per cent loss amid a bullish investor sentiment.

Profit-taking across the key sectors of the bourse further deepened the woes of Nigerian stocks, which have witnessed a depressing period in the past sessions.

Business Post reports that the consumer goods index fell by 0.79 per cent, the insurance sector depreciated by 0.70 per cent, the banking space weakened by 0.41 per cent, the energy counter decreased by 0.02 per cent, and the industrial goods sector also shed 0.02 per cent.

As a result of the persistent selling pressure, the All-Share Index (ASI) retreated by 190.67 points to settle at 97,962.24 points compared with last Friday’s 98,152.91 points, and the market capitalisation depleted by N108 billion to close at N55.404 trillion versus the preceding session’s N55.512 trillion.

The market witnessed an uptick in the activity level yesterday as the trading volume, value, and the number of deals increased by 4.56 per cent, 2.00 per cent, and 32.39 per cent apiece.

This was because the volume of transactions rose to 277.2 million shares from 265.1 million shares, the value of trades appreciated to N5.1 billion from N5.0 billion, and the number of trades grew to 8,714 deals from 6,582 deals.

UBA ended the session as the most active equity after selling 34.6 million units for N799.5 million, The Initiates transacted 25.6 million units worth N46.2 million, Transcorp exchanged 19.4 million units valued at N269.1 million, Access Holdings traded 18.8 million units for N318.6 million, and Zenith Bank sold 18.7 million worth N589.6 million.

The market breadth index was positive during the trading day after the NGX finished with 25 price gainers and 19 price losers led by Secure Electronic Technology and Dangote Sugar, which lost 10.00 per cent each to quote at 54 Kobo, and N43.20, respectively.

CAP depreciated by 9.88 per cent to sell at N26.00, Berger Paints moderated by 9.87 per cent to settle at N13.70, and Presco shrank by 9.72 per cent to N209.00.

On the flip side, Sterling Holdings grew by 9.95 per cent to N4.20, FBN Holdings appreciated by 9.83 per cent to N22.35, Honeywell Flour improved by 9.40 per cent to N3.49, Tantalizers soared by 9.09 per cent to 36 Kobo, and Caverton surged by 8.90 per cent to N1.59.