By Dipo Olowookere
The local bourse was weakened by 0.43 per cent on Thursday following selling pressure on some bellwether stocks like MTN Nigeria, GTCO, Zenith Bank and 11 others.
The loss posted yesterday on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited came after the market recorded an appreciation at the midweek session.
This reversal depleted the market capitalisation of the bourse by N110 billion to N25.309 trillion from N25.419 trillion and brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 203.65 points to 46,960.29 points from 47,163.94 points.
From the analysis of the trading data, the banking and consumer goods sectors were chiefly behind the fall yesterday as their respective index went down by 0.09 per cent and 0.07 per cent, while the energy and insurance sectors grew by 0.87 per cent and 0.73 per cent respectively, with the industrial goods counter closing flat.
Business Post reports that despite the loss, investor sentiment was marginally strong as the market breadth closed positive with 16 price gainers and 14 price losers.
RT Briscoe suffered the heaviest loss as its equity price dropped 9.72 per cent to settle at 65 kobo, followed by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, which fell by 9.09 per cent to 60 kobo.
Sterling Bank depreciated by 3.80 per cent to trade at N1.52, Flour Mills declined by 3.13 per cent to quote at N31.00, while Jaiz Bank decreased by 2.94 per cent to sell for 66 kobo.
On the gainers’ table, Veritas Kapital claimed the top spot with a price appreciation of 9.52 per cent to sell at 23 kobo, followed by FCMB, which gained 7.46 per cent to finish at N3.60.
Custodian Investment appreciated by 7.14 per cent to trade at N7.50, Oando improved its value by 6.38 per cent to N5.00, while AIICO Insurance rose by 6.06 per cent to 70 kobo.
A look at the details of the transactions showed that Fidelity Bank was the most traded stock on Thursday as it sold 48.3 million units worth N157.3 million and was trailed by GTCO, which traded 26.1 million units valued at N606.9 million.
Zenith Bank transacted 20.2 million shares worth N540.4 million, UBA sold 18.3 million equities valued at N139.7 million, while Custodian Investment exchanged 17.5 million stocks for N125.2 million.
At the close of trades, investors transacted 214.7 million shares worth N2.6 billion in 4,003 deals compared with the 267.5 million shares worth N3.2 billion transacted in 4,099 deals at the preceding session.
This showed that the volume of trades went down by 19.73 per cent, the value of transactions dropped 18.35 per cent, while the number of deals fell by 2.34 per cent.
