By Dipo Olowookere
Investors reacted negatively to the inflation figures released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for May 2022, deciding to sell off after learning that the consumer price index increased by 17.71 per cent from 16.82 per cent in April 2022.
The persistent profit-taking further pushed the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited southwards by 0.64 per cent at the close of transactions, with investor sentiment remaining weak as 11 stocks appreciated in price, while 26 equities depreciated in value.
The financial services sectors were the most impacted yesterday and they erased the gains achieved by the energy and industrial goods counters, which went up by 0.07 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively.
The banking index fell by 2.01 per cent, the insurance space lost 0.87 per cent, while the consumer goods counter depreciated by 0.53 per cent.
Consequently, the All Share Index (ASI) went down by 338.24 points to 52,775.40 points from 53,113.64 points, while the market capitalisation fell by N182 billion to N28.452 trillion from N28.634 trillion.
Meyer ended the session as the heaviest price decliner as its value depleted by 10.00 per cent to N2.79, Linkage Assurance dropped 8.93 per cent to 51 kobo, Union Bank fell by 7.69 per cent to N6.00, International Breweries declined by 6.12 per cent to N6.90, while FBN Holdings crashed by 5.71 per cent to N9.90.
On the other side of the coin, Tripple Gee finished as the biggest price riser after it added 9.20 per cent to its equity price to close at 95 kobo, Learn Africa rose by 5.49 per cent to N2.50, Unity Bank improved by 2.13 per cent to 48 kobo, AIICO Insurance chalked up 1.56 per cent to sell at 65 kobo, while Livestock Feeds gained 1.33 per cent to trade at N1.52.
It was another quiet session yesterday as the trading volume, value and number of deals depreciated by 37.30 per cent, 23.76 per cent and 9.34 per cent respectively.
This was because investors transacted 188.1 million stocks worth N2.4 billion in 4,890 deals at the midweek session compared with the 300.0 million stocks worth N3.1 billion traded in 5,394 deals on Tuesday.
UBA finished the trading day as the busiest, transacting 36.4 million equities valued at N278.6 million, GTCO traded 24.4 million shares for N531.3 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 17.6 million stocks for N175.8 million, Sterling Bank sold 14.3 million shares worth N21.9 million, while Zenith Bank traded 12.8 million equities valued at N286.8 million.
