By Dipo Olowookere
Sustained profit-taking further depleted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday by 0.25 per cent as investors sold off their Nigerian Breweries shares and 16 others in a bid to rebalance their portfolios.
However, the investor sentiment remained strong as the market breadth was positive with 20 price gainers. The decline suffered by the local bourse was due to the impact of the depreciating equities on the general outcome of the exchange.
The sell-offs were mainly on the heavyweights of the market like Nigerian Breweries, Zenith Bank, GTCO, Lafarge Africa, Flour Mills and others.
The losers’ chart was led by Nigerian Breweries, which depreciated by 9.96 per cent to settle at N62.40, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills went down by 9.09 per cent to N10.55, Japaul also dropped 9.09 per cent to sell at 30 kobo, Prestige Assurance retreated by 6.98 per cent to 40 kobo, while Multiverse shrank by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.
On the flip side, Transcorp Hotels, which is being used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the screening of its presidential candidates, topped the gainers’ log as its share price rose by 6.84 per cent to N6.25.
Champion Breweries appreciated by 5.05 per cent to N3.95, CWG also improved by 5.05 per cent to N1.04, Ecobank chalked up 5.04 per cent to trade at N12.50, while Lasaco Assurance jumped by 4.81 per cent to N1.09.
The heavy transactions seen lately in Transcorp continued yesterday as it led the activity chart with the sale of 86.7 million shares valued at N111.7 million. Jaiz Bank traded 22.8 million equities worth N20.3 million, Sovereign Trust Insurance exchanged 20.0 million stocks for N5.0 million, FCMB sold 19.8 million equities valued at N68.5 million, while Sterling Bank traded 17.2 million shares worth N25.7 million.
At the close of business, a total of 318.3 million stocks worth N3.7 billion were bought and sold in 5,190 deals as against the 27.6 billion stocks worth N194.4 billion traded on Monday in 4,586 deals, representing an increase in the number of deals by 13.17 per cent and a decrease in the trading volume and value by 98.85 per cent and 98.09 per cent respectively.
Business Post reports that the energy index closed in the green territory on Tuesday after it gained 0.05 per cent, while the consumer goods, industrial goods, banking and insurance sectors depreciated by 1.78 per cent, 0.16 per cent, 0.15 per cent and 0.13 per cent apiece.
When the closing gong was struck by 2:30 pm, the All Share Index (ASI) was down by 135.00 points to 53,637.14 points from 53,772.14 points, while the market capitalisation deflated by N73 billion to N28.916 trillion from N28.989 trillion.