By Dipo Olowookere
The major performance indices of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited were flat on Wednesday after the bears and the bulls shared the spoils of war at the close of transactions.
The stalemate occurred amid a pocket of profit-taking, particularly in the financial sector like in the preceding trading session, with the banking counter losing 0.39 per cent, and the insurance sector down by 0.18 per cent.
However, buying pressure persisted in the three other key sectors of the Nigerian stock market, with the energy counter growing by 0.37 per cent, the consumer goods index up by 0.34 per cent, and the industrial goods counter gaining 0.02 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) was slightly down by 3.87 points to 99,802.08 points from 99,805.95 points, and the market capitalisation decreased by N2 billion to settle at N56.457 trillion versus the previous day’s N56.459 trillion.
With 26 price gainers and 22 price losers, the market breadth index ended positive despite the poor outcome, with investor sentiment very strong.
Thomas Wyatt lost 10.00 per cent to sell for N2.16, DAAR Communications depreciated by 8.77 per cent to 52 Kobo, CWG shrank by 5.48 per cent to N6.90, Royal Exchange depleted by 4.11 per cent to 70 Kobo, and Wema Bank depreciated by 3.57 per cent to N6.75.
Conversely, ABC Transport gained 10.00 per cent to trade at 77 Kobo, Eterna increased by 9.88 per cent to N18.35, Livestock Feeds grew by 9.63 per cent to N2.05, Vitafoam expanded by 9.44 per cent to N19.70, and Red Star Express went up by 8.98 per cent to N4.49.
At midweek, investors traded 935.2 million stocks worth N11.8 billion in 8,160 deals compared with the 422.7 million stocks worth N54.0 billion traded in 8,256 deals on Tuesday, indicating a jump in the trading volume by 121.24 per cent and a decline in the trading value by 78.15 per cent and 1.16 per cent, respectively.
Fidelity Bank was the busiest with a turnover of 698.2 million equities valued at N7.3 billion, Zenith Bank traded 36.4 million shares worth N1.3 billion, UBA sold 26.4 million stocks for N604.1 million, GTCO transacted 14.5 million equities valued at N653.5 million, and Veritas Kapital traded 14.0 million shares for N16.9 million.