By Dipo Olowookere
Sell-offs characterised by weak investor sentiment sank the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 1.19 per cent on Thursday.
Business Post reports that a bellwether, Dangote Cement, finished the trading session as the worst-performing equity yesterday with a 10.00 per cent loss to trade at N478.80.
It was observed that the equity market was under selling pressure on Thursday, resulting in another, McNichols, shedding 10.00 per cent like Dangote Cement to settle at N1.35.
As for Secure Electronic Technology, it lost 7.58 per cent to quote at 61 Kobo, UPDC REIT crashed by 4.72 per cent to N5.05, and CWG tumbled by 4.62 per cent to N6.20.
The best-performing stock for the day was Seplat, which gained 10.00 per cent to close at N4,513.40, Livestock Feeds jumped by 9.93 per cent to N2.99, Regency Alliance rose by 9.76 per cent to 90 Kobo, Caverton appreciated by 9.63 per cent to N2.39, and AXA Mansard grew by 7.82 per cent to N5.93.
When trading activities ended for the day, 28 equities crumbled and 23 equities appreciated, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
Data revealed that the industrial goods space dwindled by 5.96 per cent during the trading day and the consumer goods index fell by 0.20 per cent.
However, the energy sector improved by 3.80 per cent, the insurance counter appreciated by 2.00 per cent, and the banking space expanded by 0.03 per cent.
After going down by 1,167.97 points, the All-Share Index (ASI) finished at 97,064.42 points compared with the previous day’s 98,232.39 points and the market capitalisation depleted by N671 billion to close at N55.777 trillion versus Wednesday’s N56.448 trillion.
A total of 268.4 million shares valued at N6.8 billion exchanged hands in 8,565 deals yesterday, in contrast to the 419.9 million shares worth N8.3 billion traded in 11,823 deals a day earlier, representing a shortfall in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 36.08 per cent, 18.07 per cent and 27.56 per cent, respectively.
The most active stock for the session was UBA, which transacted 37.1 million units worth N994.0 million, Zenith Bank traded 19.0 million units for N716.7 million, Deap Capital exchanged 13.9 million units valued at N20.1 million, Sterling Holdings sold 13.1 million units valued at N63.3 million, and Caverton traded 12.1 million units worth N25.4 million.