Profit-taking continued at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday, leading to a 0.07 per cent decline at the close of trading activities.
The market participants reacted to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on inflation and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the interest rate earlier in the week.
At Customs Street yesterday, the insurance counter went down by 1.08 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.76 per cent, and the energy sector evaporated by 0.58 per cent, but the consumer goods space appreciated by 0.63 per cent and the industrial goods sector expanded by 0.10 per cent.
The gains recorded by the duo could not stop the bears from going on rampage, bringing down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 71.10 points to 108,497.40 points from 108,568.50 points and shrinking the market capitalisation by N45 billion to N67.614 trillion from N67.659 trillion.
A total of 315.7 million shares valued at N8.4 billion were transacted in 13,345 deals during the session compared with the 421.3 million shares worth N8.4 billion traded in 13,269 deals in the previous trading day, indicating a decline in the trading value by 25.05 per cent, a rise in the number of deals by 0.57 per cent, and an unchanged trading value.
Ellah Lakes traded 40.5 million stocks for N130.5 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 21.0 million equities worth N381.5 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 20.0 million shares valued at N990.3 million, UBA sold 19.9 million stocks worth N741.6 million, and Access Holdings traded 16.8 million equities valued at N443.1 million.
Ikeja Hotel suffered the heaviest loss with a decline of 7.56 per cent to close at N11.00, Academy Press lost 7.33 per cent to trade at N2.78, The Initiates fell by 6.98 per cent to N4.00, Royal Exchange slipped by 5.62 per cent to 84 Kobo, and Neimeth slowed by 5.39 per cent to N3.16.
On the flip side, Champion Breweries gained 9.87 per cent to settle at N4.12, Dangote Sugar sweetened by 8.95 per cent to N41.40, Omatek expanded by 8.00 per cent to 81 Kobo, DAAR Communications grew by 7.94 per cent to 68 Kobo, and Deap Capital appreciated by 7.61 per cent to 99 Kobo.
When the NGX ended for the last session of the week, the market breadth was negative after recording 25 price advancers and 32 price laggards, indicating a weak investor sentiment.