By Dipo Olowookere
For the third consecutive trading session, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended in the negative territory on Thursday with a marginal 0.01 per cent loss.
This followed sustained profit-taking by investors as the macroeconomic environment became tougher due to inflationary pressures triggered by another hike in the price of petrol in the country.
Yesterday, the shares of DAAR Communications went down by 10.00 per cent to 63 Kobo, leading the laggards’ group, with Livestock Feeds declining by 9.88 per cent to N3.10. Sunu Assurances lost 9.71 per cent to trade at N1.58, Fidson depreciated by 9.71 per cent to N13.95, and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance crashed by 9.29 per cent to N1.27.
Conversely, Regency Alliance appreciated by 10.00 per cent to 66 Kobo, Caverton gained 9.73 per cent to sell for N2.48, Royal Exchange expanded by 8.70 per cent to 75 Kobo, ABC Transport surged by 8.20 per cent to N1.32, and University Press soared by 7.14 per cent to N2.55.
Business Post reports that it was a tough battle between the bulls and the bears, but the former was victorious as the bourse ended with 23 price gainers and 22 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
However, appetite for stocks continued to wane, with the trading volume, value and number of deals going down by 21.99 per cent, 32.86 per cent, and 17.37 per cent apiece.
A total of 277.8 million equities valued at N4.7 billion were transacted in 7,091 deals during the session versus the 356.1 million equities worth N7.0 billion traded in 8,582 deals on Wednesday.
Fidelity Bank emerged as the most active stock with 43.3 million units sold for N644.8 million, UBA traded 30.7 million units valued at N820.7 million, Zenith Bank transacted 25.6 million units worth N956.7 million, Lasaco Assurance exchanged 22.1 million units valued at N59.7 million, and Access Holdings sold 18.5 million units worth N361.3 million.
It was observed that all the key market sectors closed lower yesterday, with the banking, energy, consumer goods, and industrial goods indices down by 0.22 per cent, 0.13 per cent, 0.05 per cent, and 0.01 per cent, respectively, while the insurance counter was relatively flat after a marginal loss.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) contracted by 9.95 points to 97,477.19 points from 97,487.14 points and the market capitalisation depreciated by N6 billion to finish at N56.014 trillion compared with midweek’s N56.020 trillion.