By Chukwuma Umeorah
The Nigerian Exchange Limited, on Wednesday, slipped further as the market All-Share Index (ASI) dipped by 1.9 per cent resulting in investors losing N1.06 trillion at the end of the day’s trade owing to sell-offs in Zenithbank, UBA, ACCESSCORP, OANDO, UCAP and 52 other stocks.
The market’s bearish performance continues as investors enter day two of taking profit. Consequently, ASI declined 1,955.69 points or 1.9 per cent to close at 101,154.46, representing a 1-week loss of 0.41 per cent, a 4-week gain of 30.46 per cent and an overall year-to-date gain of 35.28 per cent. The total market capitalization dropped to N55.357 trillion from an opening value of N56.435 trillion signifying a loss of N1.06 trillion.
At the end of the mid-week trading session, 749.12 million units of shares valued at N22.492 billion were exchanged in 14,288 deals. Compared with the previous NGX trading day, the data shows a 15 per cent improvement in volume, a 103 per cent improvement in turnover, but a 2 per cent decline in deals.
Transcorp led the day’s activity (when measured in volume) trading 79.67 million units of shares valued at N1.062 billion, followed by UBA exchanging 61.33 million shares at N1.55 billion while Zenithbank traded 61.17 million shares valued at N2.257 billion. In the aggregate, 120 equities participated in trading, ending with 11 gainers and 57 losers.
PZ Cussons Nigeria led the gainers with 9.97 per cent share price appreciation closing at N33.10 per share, followed by Tripple Gee & Co adding 9.97 per cent closing at N3.42 per share while Geregu Power gained 9.69 per cent and ended the day’s trade at N568 per share.
On the losing side, UPDC came out last with an end-of-day price depreciation of 10 per cent at N1.80 per share, followed by Zenith Bank shedding 10 per cent to close at N35.10 per share while Royalex also lost 10 per cent and closed for the day at N0.72 per share.