Naira Closes Flat on Dollar Amid 33.5% Slide in FX Trades | Business

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited further closed bearish on Wednesday by closing 0.34 per cent lower on the back of sustained selling pressure.

Business Post reports that shares in the banking, energy and industrial goods sectors were the major cause of the decline suffered by the local bourse at the midweek session.

When the market closed for the day yesterday, only the consumer goods and the insurance counters ended in the green territory, rising by 0.58 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively.

The banking, energy and industrial goods sectors depreciated at the close of transactions by 1.00 per cent, 0.75 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 144.35 points to 42,244.22 points from 42,388.57 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N76 billion to N22.050 trillion from N22.126 trillion.

Investor sentiment was negative yesterday as the market ended the trading day with 15 price gainers and 18 price losers led by Royal Exchange, which lost 6.67 per cent to trade at 70 kobo.

Lasaco Assurance depreciated by 6.36 per cent to N1.03, Union Bank fell by 5.15 per cent to N4.60, FCMB declined by 4.33 per cent to N2.87, while Oando dropped 3.96 per cent to trade at N4.37.

Conversely, May & Baker and Cutix were the biggest price gainers with a price appreciation of 10.00 per cent each to close at N4.51 and N2.64 respectively.

UPDC appreciated by 7.76 per cent to finish at N1.25, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance rose by 5.08 per cent to 62 kobo, while Chams grew by 5.00 per cent to 21 kobo.

During the session, a total of 224.0 million stocks worth N2.7 billion were traded in 2,677 deals in contrast to the 275.9 million stocks worth N3.9 billion transacted in 3,489 deals on Tuesday.

This indicated that the trading volume, value and number of deals depreciated by 18.81 per cent, 32.47 per cent and 23.27 per cent respectively.

A further breakdown showed that with the sale of 77.4 million units valued at N696.5 million, UAC Nigeria emerged as the most active stock on the floor of the exchange yesterday.

Mutual Benefits transacted 15.0 million shares valued at N4.3 million, Sovereign Trust Insurance traded 12.2 million stocks valued at N3.0 million, Veritas Kapital exchanged 9.6 million equities worth N2.0 million, while Access Bank sold 8.9 million shares for N80.9 million.