It was another bearish session for Nigerian stocks on Thursday as they further depleted by 0.32 per cent on the back of sustained panic sell-offs.
The absence of a positive trigger has kept the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited in the bears’ territory since the beginning of this week.
A look at the sectorial performance showed that the insurance counter lost 3.82 per cent, the banking index crumbled by 1.06 per cent, the energy space shed 0.40 per cent, the consumer goods industry fell by 0.32 per cent, and the industrial goods segment weakened by 0.01 per cent, while the commodity sector closed flat.
As a result of the widespread profit-taking, the All-Share Index (ASI) retreated by 458.98 points to 144,187.03 points from 144,646.01 points and the market capitalisation moderated by N292 billion to N91.710 trillion from N92.002 trillion.
The duo of Neimeth and Omatek ended the trading day as the worst-performing stocks after losing 10.00 per cent each to sell for N4.95 and N1.17 apiece, Tantalizers depreciated by 9.75 per cent to N2.50, International Energy Insurance slipped by 9.62 per cent to N2.35, and Wema Bank crashed by 8.63 per cent to N18.00.
On the flip side, NCR Nigeria was the best-performing stock after it chalked up 10.00 per cent to trade at N37.40, Royal Exchange improved by 7.57 per cent to N1.99, C&I Leasing appreciated by 6.00 per cent to N5.30, Living Trust Mortgage Bank gained 3.87 per cent to end at N3.49, and RT Briscoe soared by 3.55 per cent to N3.50.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment remained weak after Customs Street closed with 14 price gainers and 38 price losers, representing a negative market breadth index.
It was a quiet market yesterday as traders bought and sold 349.3 million shares worth N9.3 billion in 18,753 deals compared with the 892.5 million shares valued at N23.5 billion traded in 20,225 deals a day earlier, indicating a shortfall in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 60.86 per cent, 60.43 per cent, and 7.28 per cent, respectively.
Fidelity Bank was the busiest equity for the day with a turnover of 54.3 million units valued at N1.0 billion, FCMB traded 30.3 million units worth N314.9 million, Tantalizers sold 29.7 million units for N77.5 million, GTCO exchanged 25.7 million units valued at N2.2 billion, and Access Holdings transacted 17.9 million units worth N378.5 million.