NGX: Sell-off pressure dips ASI by 0.5% after 4 consecutive gains

On Wednesday, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) bowed to sell pressure to end its four-day winning streak as the benchmark index shed 0.46 per cent to close at 65,687.16 basis points.

Basically, selloffs in telco heavyweight, MTN Nigeria Communication, alongside FBN Holdings and Lafarge Africa underpinned the market’s weak performance having dipped in share value by 3.44 per cent, 4.87 per cent and 0.36 per cent, respectively.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date return moderated to +7.7 per cent and +28.2 per cent, respectively.

Owing to profit-taking activities at the local bourse, equities investors, therefore, lost N186.85 billion cumulatively as the market capitalisation settled lower at N35.75 trillion.

However, market breadth closed positive with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. On the performance board, Seplat Energies topped 25 others on the leader’s log having appreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent to settle at N1,693.60 Kobo per share while, Unilever led 16 others on the laggard’s table after its share price dipped by 10.0 per cent to N15.75 kobo per share.

Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices advanced, while the Banking and Consumer Goods indices printed losses having depreciated in value by 4.9 per cent, 1.0 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 3.77 per cent. A total of 500.43 million shares valued at N7.14 billion were exchanged in 7,345 deals. United Bank for Africa led the volume chart with 58.31 units traded while Access Holdings led the value chart in deals worth N991.20 million.

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