Bears Roam Customs Street on Weak Investor Sentiment, Index Down 0.05%

Yesterday’s downfall of Customs Street was mainly caused by profit-taking in the banking sector, leaving its index in red by 0.43 per cent.

It was observed that the consumer goods space and the insurance counter appreciated by 0.39 per cent and 0.13 per cent, respectively, but they could not save the market from going down.

However, the energy, industrial goods and commodity indices closed flat when the closing gong was beaten at 2:30 pm.

The All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 56.36 points to 104,858.77 points from 104,915.13 points and the market capitalisation declined by N36 billion to N65.754 trillion from N65.790 trillion.

At the trading session, investors bought and sold 310.5 million shares valued at N6.3 billion in 10,182 deals compared with the 1.4 billion shares worth N12.4 billion transacted in 12,012 deals at midweek, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 77.28 per cent, 49.19 per cent and 15.23 per cent apiece.

Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 40.0 million equities worth N672.8 million, Veritas Kapital sold 37.2 million shares for N42.4 million, Nigerian Breweries transacted 27.0 million stocks valued at N890.1 million, Zenith Bank traded 22.9 million shares worth 1.1 billion, and Access Holdings exchanged 21.0 million equities valued at N464.0 million.

The heaviest price loser was Livestock Feeds, which shed 9.57 per cent to trade at N7.65, Royal Exchange lost 8.24 per cent to settle at 78 Kobo, Custodian Investment depreciated by 6.98 per cent to N20.00, UPDC contracted by 6.23 per cent to N2.86, and Chams deflated by 5.16 per cent to N2.02.

On the flip side, CWG recorded the biggest price addition with 9.64 per cent to sell for N9.10, Veritas Kapital expanded by 8.41 per cent to N1.16, Deap Capital rose by 7.61 per cent to 99 Kobo, Coronation Insurance surged by 4.26 per cent to N2.45, and Wema Bank climbed by 2.37 per cent to N10.80.