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By Chukwuma Umeorah
Bearish sentiments dominated Wednesday’s trading session on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) as the market recorded another negative outcome that saw investors losing N126.763 billion.
The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.42 per cent to close at 55,490.20 basis points against a previous close of 55,722.9 basis points, adding to the negative trend since resumption of the new trading week.
Despite mild gains recorded in some low and medium capitalised stocks, the markets weak performance was attributed to losses recorded in some blue-chip stocks like GTCO, FLOURMILL, ZENITHBANK and UCAP
Consequently, the stock market capitalisation declined by N126.763 billion closing at N30.228 trillion from an opening value of N30.355 trillion. The figures represent a weekly loss of 0.56 per cent, a monthly gain of 1.8 per cent, and an overall year-to-date (ytd) gain of 8.27 per cent.
At the end of yesterday’s trading session on the local bourse, a total of 181.187 million units of shares corresponding to a market value of N3.405 billion were traded in 3,908 deals. When compared with the previous NGX trading day, the data shows a 9 per cent decline in volume but a 21 per cent improvement in turnover.
Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) plc was the most active stock as it traded 33.850 million units of shares with corresponding market value of N841.945 million followed by TRANSCORP which exchanged 20.126 million units of stocks valued at N26.618 million. While ZENITHBANK traded 18.560 million units of stocks valued at N454.670 million.
Market breadth was negative with 19 stocks depreciating in value while 11 stocks gained.
Topping the laggards table was UCAP depreciating by 9.30 per cent in value as it closed at N11.70 per share followed by UPL which shed 7.50 per cent closing at N1.85 per share. GLAXOSMITH went down by 7.46 per cent, closing the day’s trade at N6.20 per share.
Others on the losers table were NEIMETH and OANDO with the value of their stocks going down by 7.01 per cent and 6.74 per cent closing at N1.46 and N4.01 per share respectively.
On the bright side, PRESTIGE was the best performing stock added 7.89 per cent in value closing at N0.41 per share, followed by VERITASKAP which gained 5.00 per cent closing at N0.21 per share while NGXGROUP added 4.87 per cent and closed the day’s trade at N28.00 per share.
UNILEVER and JAPAULGOLD went up in value by 3.70 per cent and 3.57 per cent to close at N14.00 and N0.29 per share respectively.
