NGX Nigerian stocks contracted for the third straight day on Wednesday as the benchmark index shed 0.12 per cent in a trade that saw investors take a risk-off disposition to bank shares.
The slide principally resulted from losses recorded by Nigeria’s three biggest banks by market value – GTCO, Zenith and Stanbic IBTC. Only the oil and gas index reported a jump of the five sectors tracked by the exchange
Market breadth was neutral with 15 gainers emerging against 15 laggards.
The all-share index slipped 46.77 basis points to 39,204.54, while market capitalisation fell to N20.4 trillion
Year to date, the index is up by 2.65 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS
Regal Insurance led gainers, growing by 8.51 per cent to close at N0.51. Universal Insurance gained 9.84 per cent to close at N0.21. Sovereign Trust rose by 4.17 per cent to N0.25. FCMB leapt to N3 notching up 3.45 per cent in the process. Oando completed the top 5, climbing up by 3.18 per cent to N4.54. TOP FIVE LOSERS
SCOA declined 9.72 per cent to N1.30. Veritas Kapital shrank by 8.70 per cent to end the day at N0.21. Mansard fell to N0.83, losing 5.68 per cent. Chams dipped to N0.21, recording 4.55 per cent loss. International Breweries closed at N4.80, going down by 4 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES
A total of 354.1 million shares worth N3.2 billion were traded in 4,095 deals.
FBN Holdings was the most preferred stock today with 86 million units of its shares worth N640.9 million traded in 112 deals. Access had 71.1 million shares priced at N671.3 million exchanged hands in 441 transactions.
Universal Insurance had 22.3 million shares valued at N4.5 million traded in 37 deals. GTO traded 19.4 million shares estimated at N529.4 million in 335 transactions. Transcorp traded 16.1 million shares valued at N14.7 million in 125 deals.