Following sustained selloff in banking stocks, especially GTCO and Zenith Bank, transactions in the equities sector of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) continued on a downturn, yesterday, as market capitalisation declined by 0.09 per cent to N28.402 trillion.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the NGX all-share index also depreciated by 46.82 basis points to 52161.24 points from 52209.06 points recorded on Wednesday.
The negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium-capitalised stocks which are GTCO, Zenith Bank, Accesscorp, First City Monument Bank, International Breweries, Berger Paints and Champion Breweries.
Analysts at Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “Although sellers outweighed buyers in the banks, they were still the most traded counters as investors picked up units at lower price levels. With WTD return down 58bps, the market might revert to a negative w/w close.”
On the price movement chart, 22 stocks appreciated while 21 others constituted the losers’ chart. Ardova Plc led gainers, up by 10 per cent to close at N24.20 kobo while NCR and Multiverse followed with a gain of 9.87 per cent each to close at N2.56 and 4.12 kobo respectively. MRS gained 9.84 per cent to close at N30.7 per share while CWG added 9.77 per cent to close at N1.91 kobo.
On the contrary, FCMB recorded the highest loss during the day, dropping by 5.66 per cent to close at N4, AccessCorp trailed with a loss of 3.77 per cent to close at N10.20 kobo, Sterling fell by 3.53 per cent to N1.64 per unit, Royal Exchange and Neimeth international Pharmaceutical down by 3.33 per cent each to close at N0.58 and N1.45 per share respectively.
Investors traded 477.371 million shares valued at N5.240 billion in 5539 deals against 584.312 million shares valued at N5.957 billion in 5168 deals.
Transactions in the shares of the AccessCorp led the activity chart during the day with an account of 169.321 million shares valued at N174.313 million, United Bank for Africa followed with an account of 102.058 million shares trading for N819.273 million, Fidelity Bank traded 30.834 million shares costing N179.728 million, GTCO Plc traded 30.388 million shares valued at N730.882 million while Zenith exchanged 16.793 million shares valued at N404.422 million.
