Speculators in the local equities market again sold off on Wednesday as the share price of First Bank Holding declined marginally following the heavy activity on the stock in the course of the share purchase by Femi Otedola. Also, the sell pressure on Transcorp Hotels and International Breweries drove the NGX to a negative performance with investors losing as much as N13 million on their stock value. Although there were expectations that the market would rebound in the next trading session on the positive signal from third quarter earnings of some market bellwethers that could boost market valuation, the NGX All-share index declined 0.06 percent to 41,790.26 points, while the market capitalisation fell to N21.8 trillion and the market’s year to date return remained unchanged at 3.8 percent.
Due to the sell pressure witnessed on Wednesday, market activity weakened as traded volume and value tanked 18.3 percent and 42.5 percent respectively to 284.6 million units and N3.2 billion.
The most traded stocks by volume were First Bank Holding (75.5 million units), Aiico Insurance (18.4 million units), and Ecobank (17.3 million units), while First Bank Holding (N898 million), Nestle Nigeria (N387.9 million), and NGX Group (N248 million) led by value.
It was a positive outing across the sectoral front as the consumer goods and ICT indices closed flat, while the oil & gas and insurance indices led the gainers, advancing 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively following price uptick in Oando Plc (+2.0%), TotalEnergies (+6.0%), Aiico Insurance (+9.6%), and Sovereign Trust Insurance (+4.4%).
Also, buying interest in Zenith Bank (+0.8%), Access Bank (+0.5%), and Wapco Plc (+0.8%) buoyed a 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent upside in the banking and industrial goods indices in that order.
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, strengthened to 1.5x from 1.0x as 23 stocks gained against 15 losers. Aiico Insurance (+9.6%), University Press Limited (+9.1%), and Red Star Express (+6.3%) led gainers, while Glaxosmith (-10.0%), Transcorp Hotels (-9.9%), and First Bank Holdings (-6.0%) led the laggards.
The NGX 30 Index marginally decreased by 0.06 percent to close at 1,733.19 points as against 1,734.18 points on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 164.30 million units. Total and Ecobank were the key gainers, while First Bank Holding and Custodian Pensions and Investment were the key losers.