By Chukwuma Umeorah
Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday closed flat on the back of waning investor enthusiasm.
Yesterday’s performance reflects a cautious market sentiment recording a 31 per cent decline in volume, a 16 per cent decrease in turnover, and an 18 per cent reduction in deals from the previous trading session. This shows a diminishing interest in stocks following the downturns earlier in the week driven by sell-offs on Monday and Tuesday trading sessions.
The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) finished with minimal movement dropping a mere 1.74 absolute points to close at 102,106 points from an opening value of 102,108 points. The markets Year-to-Date gain at 36.5 per cent as the overall value of the market remained unchanged with total capitalization of N55.871 trillion.
A look at the activity board shows a total of 341.92 million units of shares with a corresponding market value of N6.40 billion were exchanged in 9,605 deals. Among the 126 equities that participated in trading, 19 ended the session as gainers, while 35 closed in the red.
Meyer emerged as the top gainer, experiencing a 10 per cent share price appreciation and closing at N5.72 per share, followed by Tripple Gee & Co which gained 9.84 per cent to close at N4.13 per share while Juli appreciated by 9.09 per cent and closed the day at N0.84 per share.
Others on the wining table were Cornerstone Insurance Company adding 8.78 per cent closing at N2.23 per share, Afriprud gained 8.70 per cent closing at N8.75 per share and 14 other stocks.
Conversely, Aiico Insurance registered the highest decline, with its share price depreciating by 9.92 per cent to close at N1.18 per share. Cadbury and Guineains lost 9.50 per cent and 8.93 per cent to close at N21.90 and N0.51 respectively.
In terms of trading volume, Transcorp Nigeria led the pack with 39.9 million shares traded, followed by FBN Holdings trading 33.6 million units while Guaranty Trust Holding exchanged 26 million units.