Losses suffered by BUA Cement and 34 other equities due to profit-taking by investors sank Nigeria’s stock market by 1.13 per cent on Monday.
During the first trading session of this week, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited tumbled by 2,824.81 points to 247,560.66 points from 250,385.47 points, and the market capitalisation crashed by N1.811 trillion to N158.698 trillion from last Friday’s N160.509 trillion.
Sell-offs were witnessed in the industrial goods, banking and energy sectors, resulting in them closing lower yesterday by 3.86 per cent, 1.49 per cent, and 0.23 per cent, respectively. However, bargain-hunting lifted the insurance index by 0.79 per cent and raised the consumer goods by 0.02 per cent.
Business Post reports that the market breadth index was negative on a day the T+1 settlement cycle became effective. There were 25 price gainers and 35 price losers, indicating weak investor sentiment.
BUA Cement lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N378.00, Trans-Nationwide Express shed 9.85 per cent to finish at N4.76, John Holt declined by 9.73 per cent to N15.30, Red Star Express went down by 9.71 per cent to N30.70, and Deap Capital depreciated by 9.15 per cent to N5.16.
Conversely, International Energy Insurance gained 9.96 per cent to sell for N4.97, Consolidated Hallmark improved by 9.92 per cent to N6.87, The Initiates rose by 9.86 per cent to N31.20, RT Briscoe went up by 9.16 per cent to N14.90, and Ikeja Hotel soared by 8.71 per cent to N43.70.
Yesterday, investors transacted 1.1 billion shares valued at N44.3 billion in 91,880 deals compared with the 1.2 billion shares worth N43.4 billion traded in 93,626 deals in the preceding session, showing a jump in the trading value by 2.07 per cent, and a shrink in the trading volume and number of deals by 8.33 per cent and 1.87 per cent, respectively.
Abbey Mortgage Bank was the most equity for the day with 291.2 million units sold for N1.8 billion, Access Holdings exchanged 130.3 million units worth N3.1 billion, Neimeth traded 77.9 million units valued at N802.2 million, UBA transacted 76.4 million units for N3.4 billion, and The Initiates traded 61.3 million units worth N1.9 billion.
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