Stock Market Drops 0.09% as Investors Sell Off Oando, FBNH, Others

By Dipo Olowookere

The local stock market succumbed to profit-taking on Friday as it depreciated by 0.09 per cent on the back of sell-offs in Oando, FBN Holdings and 14 others.

This brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 66.60 points during the session to 72,389.23 points from 72,455.83 points as the market capitalisation decreased by N36 billion to settle at N39.613 trillion compared with the previous day’s N39.649 trillion.

Universal Insurance suffered the heaviest loss yesterday, with a 7.14 per cent decline to close at 26 Kobo, as Livestock Feeds lost 5.00 per cent to trade at N1.71. FBN Holdings went down by 4.92 per cent to N23.20, FTN Cocoa shed 3.31 per cent to finish at N1.46, and Oando slumped by 3.24 per cent to N10.45.

The biggest price gainer was Cadbury Nigeria, which increased its value by 9.93 per cent to N16.05, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills also appreciated by 9.93 per cent to N38.75, John Holt rose by 9.85 per cent to N2.23, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank grew by 9.73 per cent to N2.82, and UPDC REIT jumped by 9.64 per cent to N4.55.

A look at the sectorial performance revealed that the banking space was the sole decliner, going down by 0.72 per cent, and the industrial goods counter closed flat.

However, the energy index appreciated by 0.94 per cent, the insurance sector went up by 0.82 per cent and the consumer goods counter improved by 0.36 per cent.

The market was quiet on the last trading session of the week, with the trading volume, value and the number of deals down by 31.21 per cent, 9.59 per cent, and 12.11 per cent.

This was because investors transacted 307.2 million stocks worth N6.6 billion in 6,016 deals during the trading day compared with the 446.6 million stocks worth N7.3 billion transacted in 6,845 deals a day earlier.

GTCO finished the session as the busiest, selling 51.1 million equities for N2.0 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 24.7 million shares worth N912.4 million, UBA transacted 24.5 million stocks for N596.9 million, Lafarge Africa traded 16.8 million equities valued at N500.7 million, and Unilever Nigeria sold 15.7 million shares worth N228.3 million.