By Philemon Adedeji
The Nigerian equities market on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed parallel in yesterday trading, during trading some stocks could not record gain rather than a bit loss. This occurred due to sell-off in some stocks like UPL, Mutual Benefit Assurance, and 15 others.
NGX All-Share Index depreciated by 1.49 basis points representing 0.00 per cent to close trade at 51,802.48 index points from 51,803.97 index points it closed on previous trading day
Obviously, market capitalisation value gained N82 billion to close trade at N27.927 trillion from N27.845 trillion it closed trade on the previous trading day. Market sentiments as measured by market breadth closed negative as Ikeja Hotel led 17 gainers against UPL that led 14 decliners.
In all, total volume traded yesterday appreciated by 32.3 per cent as investors bought and sold 416,469,572 million units from 314,611,778 million units it closed on Tuesday and valued by N3.458 billion exchanged in 4,466 deals.
On the advancers chart, Ikeja Hotel emerged as the overall gainer which appreciated by 10 per cent or 0.11 kobo increased to close trade at N1.21 per share, transaction followed by Royalex Exchange which gained 0.07 kobo increased to close trade at N1.03 per share as Nigerian Police Force Microfinance Bank inched weight by 7.27 per cent or 0.12 kobo increased to close trade at N1.77 per share.
Fidelity Bank was recorded as the last fourth gainer grew by 4.88 per cent or 0.16 kobo increased to close trade at N3.44 per share and Glaxosmith which recorded as the last fifth gainer rose by 0.30 kobo increased to close trade at N6.50 per share.
On the decliners table, UPL came as the highest decliner which dipped by 9.62 per cent or 0.25 kobo to close trade at N2.35 per share, followed by Chams Plc which depreciated by 0.02 kobo to close trade at N0.23 per share, Linkage Assurance which recorded as the third best loser down by 6.90 per cent or 0.04 kobo to close trade at N0.54 per share while Cutix diminished by 6.25 per cent to close trade at N2.25 per share and FTNcococa which recorded as the last fifth decliner dropped by 5.71 per cent to close trade at N0.33 per share
Transaction in the share of Mutual Benefit Assurance topped the volume chart with 212.508 million shares worth N53.124 million, as followed by Guaranty Trust Holding Company that accounted 42.151 million shares valued at N868.539 million, while United bank of Africa sold 23.985 million shares worth N179.036 million.
First Bank holding of Nigeria traded 23.159 million shares worth N262.177 million and Accesscorp accounted 22.824 million shares valued at N208.537 million.
Mutual Benefit Assurance led in terms of volume while Guaranty Trust Holding Company led in terms of value.