Trading of equities on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX has reversed some of the previous session’s gains with the All-Share index slipping by 11.24 basis points or 0.02% to close at 47,353.22 basis points from Wednesday’s 47, 364.46 basis points.
The market capitalisation decreased by ₦6.06bn to close at ₦25.521trn, representing also a lost of 0.02% from Wednesday’s ₦25,527 trillion.
Thursday’s fall is attributed to renewed selloffs in SEPLAT ENERGY PLC which declined 3.13%, in addition to losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC which fell 1.98% and DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC which fell 1.25%.
These losses offset gains in PRESCO PLC which upped 6.40%, FBN Holdings Plc which gained 1.70% and ZENITH BANK PLC which gained 0.19%.
At the close of market activities, investors traded slightly higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions advancing by 53.51% to a total of 239.73m units of shares valued at ₦3.89bn and exchanged in 3,848 deals.
VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC which grew 4.55% led the volume chart with 30.01m units of shares traded, while MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC has for the second consecutive session, led the value chart in deals worth ₦961.43m.
Market breadth closed positive with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones as 18 stocks gained relative to 17 decliners.
U A C N PLC led the advancers with an upward movement from a previous selling price of N11.00 per share to N12.10k per share, gaining N1.10k or 10.00%. Trailing right after is ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC which gained 0.10k or 9.80% on its previous selling price of N1.02k per share to close at N1.12%. And CORONATION INSURANCE PLC adavanced 0.04k or 8.16% to close at 0.53k per share from 0.49k per share.
On the reverse side, NIGER INSURANCE PLC topped the losers when it fell from 0.22k per share to 0.20k per share, loosing 0.02k or 9.09%.
Next is CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC which fell from 0.62k per share to close at 0.58k per share, loosing 0.04k or 6.45%. While VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC declined from 0.22k per share and stood at 0.21k per share, loosing 0.01k or 4.55%.
Performance across sectors was mixed as the Insurance index gained 0.1%, while the Oil & Gas index dropped 1.8% and Consumer Goods index fell 0.5%. The Banking and Industrial Goods indices closed flat.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
