By Chukwuma Umeorah
Trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed lower on Thursday dropping 0.02 per cent, amid profit taking in some blue-chip stocks.
Specifically, the All-Share Index lost only 12.03 basis points or 0.02 per cent to close at 54,924.04 basis points compared with 54,936.11 basis points recorded at the close of the previous trading day.
Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N29.927 trillion, shed N6.555 billion to close at N29.921 trillion. The data represents a weekly gain of 0.02 per cent, a monthly gain of 0.51 per cent, and an overall year-to-date (ytd) gain of 7.17 per cent.
The downturn in yesterday’s trading session was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalized stocks, amongst which included FIDELITYBK, DANGSUGAR, GTCO, STERLINKBK and UCAP.
Investors sentiment was negative as the stock market closed with 17 stocks depreciating while 14 stocks gained.
NCR led the losers table with the value of its stocks depreciating by 9.96 per cent to close at N2.35 per share, followed by LINKASSURE which lost 8.70 per cent closing at N0.42 per share while MANSARD shed 7.50 per cent and closed the day’s trade at N1.85 per share.
Other stocks that depreciated were ROYALEX AND UPDC which lost 4.17 per cent and 4.00 per cent to close at N0.69 per share and N0.96 per share respectively.
On the bright side, SUNUASSUR was the best performing stock with its value up by 9.09 per cent closing at N0.48 per share, followed by TRANSCOHOT which gained 8.32 per cent and closed at N6.90 per share. ACADEMY also gained 7.50 per cent closing at N1.29 per share.
REGALINS and ABCTRANS also gained 7.14 per cent and 5.71 per cent and closed the day’s trade at N0.30 and N0.37 per share.
Meanwhile at the end of yesterday’s trading session on the local bourse, a total of 117.850 million units of shares corresponding to a market value of N1.399 billion, were traded in 2,575 deals. Compared with the previous NGX trading day, the data shows a 12 per cent decline in volume, a 5 per cent improvement in turnover, and a 4 per cent improvement in deals.
TRANCORP was the most active having traded 23.396 million units of shares valued at N31.479 million, followed by FIDELITYBK which exchanged 16.951 million shares valued at N88.162 million while FBNH traded 13.061 million shares corresponding to a market value of N143.571 million.