Bear persists at NGX as profit-taking activities takes toll on ASI

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) extended previous day’s sentiments on Thursday, as sustained profit-taking activities further pressured market performance.

Profit-taking activities continued with Dangote Sugar, Transnational Corporation and Seplat Energy weighing down the bourse having dipped by 7.9 percent, 2.3 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Thus, the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.39 percent to close at 145,300.01 basis points, with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderating to +3.9 percent and +41.2 percent, respectively.

Consequently, investors lost N357 billion in market value, with the total market capitalisation settling at N91.93 trillion.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 22 tickers gained relative to 48 losers.

On the performance board, Wema Bank and Lasaco Insurance EMABANK (-10.0%) and LASACO (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day, having dipped by 10.0 percent, respectively, while Juli and Austin & Laz Company led the gainers after their respective shares value appreciated by 10 percent.

Sector performance was broadly negative, with losses recorded in the Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors, recording 0.48 percent, 8.26 percent, 0.20 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively.

The Industrial Goods sector bucked the trend, rising by 0.11 percent, while the Commodity sector closed flat.

Despite the bearish price trend, market activity strengthened significantly, as the number of deals, trading volume, and turnover value jumped by 41.52 percent to 43,515 deals, 83.01 percent to 2.46 billion units, and 9.90 percent to N22.22 billion, respectively.

Universal Insurance was the most traded stock by volume at 390.40 million units, while Nigerian Breweries was the most traded stock by value at N1.87 billion.

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