By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered a marginal 0.02 per cent loss on Monday following sell-offs in some equities like Eterna, MTN Nigeria, CWG, GTCO and others. Eterna and CWG closed the trading session as the worst-performing stocks after losing 10.00 per cent each to settle at N5.04 and 99 kobo respectively.
In addition, Royal Exchange shed 9.92 per cent to sell for N1.09, Veritas Kapital depreciated by 8.70 per cent to trade at 21 kobo, while SCOA Nigeria depleted by 8.13 per cent to close at N2.60.
According to data obtained by Business Post , the exchange closed with 22 price losers and 19 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth and a weak investor sentiment.
On top of the gainers’ table yesterday was RT Briscoe, which is staging a comeback after a series of declines, rising during the session by 9.59 per cent to 80 kobo.
Ecobank gained 7.27 per cent to quote at N11.80, Prestige Assurance appreciated by 6.52 per cent to 49 kobo, Niger Insurance grew by 4.55 per cent to 23 kobo, while Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 3.85 per cent to close at 27 kobo.
It was observed that the sectorial performance was mixed on Monday, with the banking and industrial goods counters rising by 1.15 per cent and 0.12 per cent respectively and the insurance, consumer goods and energy sectors depreciating by 1.91 per cent, 0.41 per cent and 0.33 per cent respectively.
The overriding power of the bears on the bulls consequently depressed the All-Share Index (ASI) by 8.81 points to 47,428.67 points from 47,437.48 points and suppressed the market capitalisation by N4 billion to N25.562 trillion from N25.566 trillion.
Despite the poor performance of the bourse yesterday, the market activity was largely positive as the trading volume, value and number of deals increased by 11.00 per cent, 12.66 per cent and 20.54 per cent respectively.
Investors transacted 1.3 billion stocks worth N7.9 billion in 4,735 deals compared with the 1.2 billion stocks worth N7.0 billion traded in 3,928 deals last Friday.
This was buoyed by the cross deal in FCMB as the company traded 1.0 billion shares valued at N3.8 billion as Fidelity Bank transacted 38.1 million stocks worth N108.9 million.Zenith Bank exchanged 28.5 million equities worth N768.1 million, Transcorp sold 21.0 million stocks for N23.8 million, while GTCO traded 17.0 million equities for N455.4 million.