By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited closed bearish on Monday following a 0.04 per cent loss.
The decline suffered by the local stocks was influenced by mild profit-taking by investors, who quickly cashed out the gains they have made in the past few trading sessions.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 16.94 points to 39,505.40 points from 39,522.34 points last Friday, while the market capitalisation decreased by N9 billion to N20.583 trillion from N20.592 trillion.
Business Post reports that the insurance and the consumer goods sectors were the only gainers yesterday as they rose by 0.04 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively, while the banking, energy and industrial goods counters depreciated by 0.65 per cent, 0.27 per cent and 0.09 per cent respectively.
Sitting on top of the decliners’ table was ABC Transport as it lost 8.33 per cent to sell at 33 kobo, Lasaco Assurance went down by 6.67 per cent to N1.40, Livestock Feeds crashed by 4.81 per cent to N1.98, Fidelity Bank declined by 4.80 per cent to N2.38, while Champion Breweries lost 4.55 per cent to sell for N2.10.
During the session, SFS REIT sat on top of the advancers’ chart with a price gain of 9.96 per cent to trade at N67.90, MRS Oil rose by 9.92 per cent to N13.85, May & Baker grew by 9.77 per cent to N4.83, Honeywell Flour Mills gained 9.76 per cent to quote at N2.25, while Mutual Benefits Assurance appreciated by 8.82 per cent to 37 kobo.
At the close of business, the market recorded 25 appreciating stocks and 15 depreciating stocks, indicating a positive investor sentiment despite the loss.
At the market yesterday, investors exchanged 141.3 million shares worth N1.6 billion in 3,393 deals compared with the 188.8 million shares worth N3.2 billion traded in 3,267 deals at the previous session.
This indicated that the number of deals increased by 3.86 per cent, while the volume and the value of traded stocks declined by 25.18 per cent and 49.16 per cent respectively.
eTranzact was the most active stock of the session with the sale of 16.2 million stocks valued at N33.4 million and was trailed by Fidelity Bank, which sold 10.4 million stocks worth N24.3 million.
Transcorp traded 9.8 million shares worth N9.3 million, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance exchanged 9.2 million equities valued at N4.4 million, while Access Bank transacted 7.6 million shares worth N69.0 million.
