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By Chukwuma Umeorah
The total turnover of shares traded on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) fell by 16.6 per cent amid profit taking by investors last week.
Risk-off sentiments resonated in the Nigerian equities as investors took profits following recent rallies.
Particularly, sell pressures on – MTNN (-4.2 per cent) and GTCO (-7.2 per cent) led the benchmark index lower. Thus, the All-Share Index (ASI) dipped by 1.58 per cent week-on-week (w/w) to close at 54,935.20 points.
Furthermore, year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 7.2 per cent while N479 billion was shaved off from market capitalization to N29.916 trillion.
Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Growth which appreciated by 1.11 per cent and 2.90 per cent respectively while the NGX ASeM, NGX Oil and Gas indices and NGX Sovereign Bond index closed flat.
Hence, activity level dampened as a total turnover of 853.745 million shares worth N11.841 billion in 18,543 deals was traded by investors as against N1.02 billion valued at N20.22 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 18,650 deals.
The Financial service industry led the activity chart with 547.566 million shares valued at N7.100 billion traded in 9,419 deals, thus contributing 64.14 per cent and 59.97 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 85.145 million shares worth N134.734 million in 717 deals while the Consumer Goods Industry recorded a turnover of 52.981million shares worth N1.584 billion in 2,865 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Sterling Bank Plc.(measured by volume) accounted for 226.004 million shares worth N2.041 billion in 2,613 deals, contributing 26.47 per cent and 17.24 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
