By Dipo Olowookere
The major performance indicators of the domestic stock market further depreciated by 0.18 per cent on Wednesday on the back of continued sell-offs.
Yesterday, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited struggled to find its footing due to profit-taking.
Only the energy index closed higher, as the others were mainly depressed due to the decision of investors to cut their exposure to equities.
The banking space lost 0.60 per cent, the insurance counter shed 0.29 per cent, and the consumer goods segment declined by 0.15 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) moderated by 451.92 points to 251,861.24 points from 252,313.16 points, and the market capitalisation decreased by N294 billion to N163.531 trillion from N163.825 trillion.
Okomu Oil suffered the heaviest loss after it went down by 10.00 per cent to N1,148.60. Nigerian Enamelware lost 9.96 per cent to trade at N33.00, NASCON depreciated by 8.99 per cent to N167.00, FTN Cocoa slipped by 8.36 per cent to N6.80 -0.62, and VFD Group shrank by 6.67 per cent to N11.20.
Conversely, University Press appreciated by 9.89 per cent to N5.00, Caverton flew by 8.96 per cent to N3.65, Abbey Bank grew by 8.66 per cent to N6.90, Champion Breweries expanded by 8.56 per cent to N10.15, and Ecobank gained 6.93 per cent to settle at N74.85.
A total of 22 stocks gained weight at midweek, and 29 stocks lost weight, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
As for the activity level, it was in the red after market participants bought and sold 418.4 million shares for N22.8 billion in 30,908 deals versus the 545.3 million shares worth N30.4 billion traded in 31,543 deals a day earlier, representing a shortfall in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 23.27 per cent, 25.00 per cent, and 2.01 per cent, respectively.
Honeywell Flour led the activity chart, with a turnover of 76.0 million units valued at N2.6 billion. GTCO transacted 38.2 million units worth N4.6 billion, Sovereign Trust Insurance exchanged 28.6 million units for N70.4 million, Champion Breweries sold 24.5 million units valued at N249.1 million, and Access Holdings traded 23.1 million units worth N629.7 million.
