The bears resurfaced at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Wednesday, pulling it down by 0.10 per cent after investors offloaded shares of MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Dangote Sugar, Honeywell Flour and others.
Customs Street ended in red despite a strong investor sentiment as data showed the market breadth was positive after recording 31 price gainers and 18 price losers.
The heaviest price laggard was UH REIT, which shed 9.93 per cent to close at N51.25, ABC Transport crashed by 9.80 per cent to N1.38, Universal Insurance depreciated by 8.33 per cent to 55 Kobo, DAAR Communications lost 6.45 per cent to trade at 58 Kobo, and Champion Breweries retreated by 5.00 per cent to N3.80.
On the flip side, Mutual Benefits rose by 10.00 per cent to 88 Kobo, Royal Exchange soared by 9.88 per cent to 89 Kobo, NEM Insurance appreciated by 9.84 per cent to N13.40, Lasaco Assurance jumped by 9.56 per cent to N2.75, and eTranzact gained 9.52 per cent to settle at N5.75.
Business Post reports that the sectorial performance of the bourse encouraging despite the loss suffered by the NGX, as the insurance sector gained 2.64 per cent, the consumer goods index expanded by 0.35 per cent, the banking space increased by 0.13 per cent, and the energy counter advanced by 0.03 per cent, while the industrial goods and commodity sectors closed flat.
But when trading activities ended for the session, the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 107.29 points to 105,485.99 points from 105,593.28 points and the market capitalisation contracted by N67 billion to N66.148 trillion from N66.215 trillion.
Yesterday’s activity chart was robust due to a significant transaction carried out in Lafarge Africa with the sale of 4.5 billion shares for N330.2 billion, closing as the most active.
Sovereign Trust Insurance traded 607.1 million equities valued at N607.1 million, Cutix exchanged 358.3 million stocks worth N860.0 million, Fidelity Bank transacted 61.9 million shares valued at N1.2 billion, and Access Holdings exchanged 43.8 million stocks for N973.8 million.
In all, investors bought and sold 5.8 billion equities valued at N342.6 billion in 10,908 deals at midweek compared with the 349.3 million equities worth N15.1 billion transacted in 12,450 deals on Tuesday, indicating a decline in the number of deals by 12.39 per cent, and a surge in the trading volume and value by 1,548.98 per cent and 2,168.87 per cent, respectively.