By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian stock market returned to the red territory on Tuesday after it depreciated by a marginal 0.01 per cent on the back of profit-taking.
The decline in the share prices of UPDC, GTCO, UBA, Oando and 11 others contributed to the downfall of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited yesterday as they outweighed the gains posted by Access Bank, Flour Mills, Honeywell Flour and 16 others.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 4.99 points to 43,255.14 points from 43,260.13 points, while the market capitalisation remained unchanged at N22.576 trillion.
Business Post reports that UPDC was the worst-performing stock yesterday as its share value went down by 9.35 per cent to trade at N1.26, followed by NEM Insurance, which dropped 9.27 per cent to sell for N1.86.
Axa Mansard Insurance went down by 5.11 per cent to close at N2.23, Chams depreciated by 4.55 per cent to 21 kobo, while Royal Exchange declined by 4.08 per cent to 47 kobo.
However, the best-performing stock for the trading session was Honeywell Flour as investors pounced on the news of its acquisition by a rival Flour Mills to mop up its shares and this caused the 9.95 per cent growth recorded at the session, closing at N4.09.
University Press appreciated by 8.70 per cent to N2.50, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance grew by 7.41 per cent to 58 kobo, GlaxoSmithKline rose by 5.79 per cent to N6.40, while FTN Cocoa gained 5.00 per cent to finish at 42 kobo.
The level of activity was poor on Tuesday as the trading volume, value and number of deals decreased by b90.93 per cent, 82.34 per cent and 13.57 per cent respectively.
This was because investors traded 218.0 million stocks worth N2.9 billion in 4,158 deals yesterday compared with Monday’s 2.4 billion stocks worth N16.5 billion traded in 4,811 deals.
GTCO was the most active stock as it traded 36.2 million units valued at N919,6 million, while FNB Holdings trailed with the sale of 31.5 million units worth N387.3 million.
During the session, Zenith Bank transacted 13.4 million equities worth N327.3 million, Access Bank exchanged 13.1 million stocks for N121.5 million, while Honeywell Flour traded 9.8 million shares for N40.3 million.
In terms of the performance of the five key sectors of the market, the banking index closed 0.21 per cent, the industrial goods space closed flat, while the insurance, energy and consumer goods counters depreciated by 1.97 per cent, 0.20 per cent and 0.16 per cent respectively.
