Honeywell Flour, FBN Holdings, Others Halt Winning Streaks on NGX

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited could not extend its upward movement for the fifth consecutive session as it ended on Thursday with a 0.23 per cent loss.

The poor outcome was influenced by profit-taking across the major sectors of the stock exchange, especially due to heavy selling pressure on financial equities.

The banking space lost 0.62 per cent, the insurance counter depreciated by 0.57 per cent, the consumer goods index fell by 0.26 per cent, the energy sector weakened by 0.13 per cent, and the industrial goods space declined by 0.06 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) dropped by 227.17 points to close at 98,003.75 points compared with the previous day’s 98,230.92 points and the market capitalisation crumbled by N131 billion to finish at N56.316 trillion versus the preceding day’s N56.447 trillion.

Honeywell Flour topped the losers’ chart yesterday after it tumbled by 9.98 per cent to N4.87, FBN Holdings went down by 9.88 per cent to N30.55, UPDC slumped by 9.74 per cent to N1.76, Secure Electronic Technology depreciated by 8.82 per cent to 62 Kobo, and Tantalizers dwindled by 8.82 per cent to 62 Kobo.

The market breadth index was negative during the session as a result of the bourse closing with 25 price gainers and 26 price losers, indicating weak investor sentiment.

However, the NGX was busy with trading activities, with the sell side prevailing over the buy end of the curve.

A total of 473.1 million shares worth N11.4 billion exchanged hands in 9,848 deals on Thursday versus the 361.3 million shares valued at N7.6 billion traded in 9,627 deals on Wednesday, representing a rise in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 30.94 per cent, 50.00 per cent, and 2.30 per cent, respectively.

For another trading day, Japaul was on top of the activity log after transacting 106.7 million equities valued at N259.8 million, UAC Nigeria traded 57.9 million shares worth N1.2 billion, Fidelity Bank sold 48.7 million stocks valued at N599.4 million, Honeywell Flour exchanged 26.1 million equities for N139.3 million, and Dangote Cement traded 16.1 million shares worth N4.8 million.