Investors on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, suffered N150bn loss last week as bears dominated trading, halting consecutive weeks of upward movement.

The dip was attributed to sell-offs and profit-taking in high-priced and blue-chip stocks.

The market sentiment was also attributed to investors adopting a cautious approach as they analysed the recently released inflation figure of 24.08 per cent and its potential impact.

The NGX All Share Index dipped by 0.93 per cent at the close of trading last week to 64,721.09, while the market capitalisation dropped by 0.42 per cent to N35.422tn.

Depreciation in the market capitalisation would have been higher but for the additional listing of MTN Nigeria’s 641,047,053 units of ordinary shares of 2 Kobo at N232.68, each arising from scrip dividend election scheme which drove market capitalisation up by N13bn at the close of business on Wednesday.

NGX in a statement signed by its Head, Listings Regulation Department, Godstime Iwenekhai, notified the investing public that “with this listing of the additional 641,047,053 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of MTN has now increased from 20,354,513,050 to 20,995,560,103 ordinary shares of 2 kobo each.”

The year-to-date returns stood at 26.89 per cent at the close of trading. Other indices finished the week lower with the exception of NGX Premium, NGX AFR. Div. Yield, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Industrial Goods, NGX Growth and NGX Sovereign Bond indices appreciated by 0.69 per cent, 0.44 per cent 2.39 per cent, 0.37 per cent, 1.08 per cent and 0.25 per cent respectively while the NGX ASeM index closed flat.

For the week under review, 1.689 billion shares worth N29.407bn were traded in 29,477 deals in contrast to a total of 1.741 billion shares valued at N25.087bn that exchanged hands last week in 30,652 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.166 billion shares valued at N16.925bn traded in 13,819 deals; thus contributing 69.04 per cent and 57.55 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Conglomerates Industry followed with 191.320 million shares worth N843.336m in 1,829 deals. The third place was the Oil & Gas Industry, with a turnover of 64.352 million shares worth N810.637m in 2,159 deals.

The top three equities were FBN Holdings Plc, Transnational Corporation Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc. Measured by volume, they accounted for 576.688 million shares worth N6.911bn in 3,524 deals, contributing 34.14 per cent and 23.50 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Twenty-nine equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than 41 equities in the previous week. 56 equities depreciated in price higher than 44 in the previous week, while 70 equities remained unchanged, same as 70 recorded in the previous week.

Leading the gainers was the Computer Warehouse Group with 25.83 per cent gain in its share value to close at N3.80, Wema Bank’s shares gained 7.76 per cent to close at N5 and the shares of Transnational Corporation Plc appreciated by 6.94 per cent to close at N4.16.

On the losers’ chart, Sunu Assurances Nigeria Plc led with 28.70 per cent depreciation in its share value to close at N0.82, Unity Bank lost 9.79 per cent to close at N1.29, Eterna Plc lost 9.39 per cent to close at 17.85, and real estate firm, UPDC’s shares dipped by 8.93 per cent to close at N1.02. (The PUNCH)

Update news