By Dipo Olowookere
The local bourse depreciated further by 0.10 per cent on Wednesday following persistent profit-taking by investors as attention shifted to the fixed-income market, where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned some treasury bills at the primary market.
This took out about N56 billion from the portfolios of stock investors at the midweek session, with the market capitalisation closing at N56.020 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N56.076 trillion.
In the same vein, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited went down by 97.67 points to settle at 97,487.14 points, in contrast to the 97,584.81 points it ended a day earlier.
Business Post observed that apart from the consumer goods index, which grew by 0.31 per cent during the trading day, every other sector closed lower as a result of the selling pressure.
The banking counter shrank by 0.67 per cent, the energy sector depreciated by 0.48 per cent, the insurance industry crumbled by 0.22 per cent, and the industrial goods space tumbled by 0.01 per cent.
Ellah Lakes recorded a loss of 9.84 per cent yesterday to sell for N4.40, ABC Transport dwindled by 9.63 per cent to N1.22, Eterna crashed by 8.52 per cent to N24.70, C&I Leasing depleted by 8.40 per cent to N3.71, and Livestock Feeds slipped by 8.02 per cent to N3.44.
However, Lasaco Assurance gained 10.00 per cent to finish at N2.53, MeCure Industries expanded by 9.47 per cent to N9.25, Julius Berger increased by 9.33 per cent to N164.00, Regency Alliance improved by 9.09 per cent to 60 Kobo, and Golden Guinea Breweries grew by 7.94 per cent to N3.40.
At the close of business, 15 equities ended on the gainers’ chart and 38 equities finished on the losers’ table, representing a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
The busiest share of the session was Fidelity Bank with the sale of 66.2 million units valued at N988.1 million, UBA transacted 38.0 million units worth N1.0 billion, Sterling Holdings traded 33.8 million units valued at N179.6 million, Nigerian Breweries exchanged 14.6 million units for N435.7 million, and Oando transacted 13.1 million units worth N934.2 million.
When trading activities ended for the day, investors bought and sold 356.1 million shares worth N7.0 billion in 8,582 deals versus the 719.1 million shares valued at N8.3 billion traded in 9,435 deals in the preceding day, implying a decline in the trading volume, value, and the number of deals by 50.48 per cent, 15.66 per cent and 9.04 per cent, respectively.