Stocks Open Week With 0.40% Loss at Nigerian Exchange

By Dipo Olowookere

The first trading session of the new week at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) opened bearish on Monday by 0.40 per cent after investors embarked on profit-taking.

The situation left the market with 20 price losers with Stanbic IBTC as the worst-performing stock as its share price went down by 9.94 per cent to N43.50.

Guinness Nigeria on its part depreciated by 9.93 per cent to N26.75, Custodian Investment lost 8.40 per cent to close at N6.00, NAHCO fell by 7.73 per cent to N2.03, while PZ Cussons declined by 5.15 per cent to N4.60.

Business Post reports that a total of 15 equities closed in green with Japaul as the best-performing stock as its value went up by 9.52 per cent to settle at 69 kobo.

UAC Property gained 9.33 per cent to sell for 82 kobo, Africa Prudential rose by 8.33 per cent to N5.85, Royal Exchange also appreciated by 8.33 per cent to 39 kobo, while Sterling Bank improved by 7.69 per cent to N1.68.

Apart from the banking sector which gained 0.20 per cent and the industrial goods space which closed flat, every other sector closed in red yesterday.

The insurance counter depreciated by 0.80 per cent, the energy index went down by 0.12 per cent, while the consumer goods counter declined by 0.10 per cent.

At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 153.84 points to finish at 38,712.55 points as against the previous 38,866.39 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N75 billion to N20.260 trillion from N20.335 trillion.

There was an improvement in the level of activity on Monday as investors traded 194.0 million stocks worth N1.4 billion in 4,287 deals compared with the previous 160.6 million shares worth N1.3 billion traded in 3,507 deals. This signified that the trading volume went up by 20.75 per cent, the trading value rose by 6.51 per cent and the number of deals increased by 22.24 per cent.

Fidelity Bank was the most active stock yesterday because of the sale of 30.9 million units of its equities valued at N77.6 million by traders.

Chams transacted 29.5 million stocks worth N6.0 million, Access Bank exchanged 23.4 million shares for N189.0 million, FBN Holdings traded 11.3 million equities worth N82.6 million, while Mutual Benefits Assurance transacted 11.1 million equities valued at N4.3 million.