Chinwendu Obienyi
For traders at the Nigerian Stock Exchage, the third business week in May kicked off recently with more profit-taking by investors, hence leading to a 0.84 per cent or 344.7 basis points in the All Share Index (ASI) which close at 40,677.61 points.
The impact of the sell-offs swept across four key sectors of the market while the Oil and Gas sector closed flat.
At the close of trading, the market capitalisation, which opened the week at N14.860 trillion decreased by N126 billion to close at N14.734 trillion as market breadth was negative with 32 equities declining while 11 others advanced.
Cileasing topped the losers with 9.36 per cent to close at N1.55 per share. First Aluminium was next with 8.89 per cent to close at 41 kobo, Japaul Oil lost 7.50 per cent to close at 37 kobo, Okomu Oil decreased by 5 per cent to close at N85.50 while Oando Plc fell by 4.91 per cent to close at N7.75 per share.
On the flip side, Caverton topped the gainers’ chart with 4.98 per cent to close at N2.74 per share. Sterling Bank trailed with 3.82 per cent to close at N1.63, Mutual Benefit gained 3.57 per cent to close at 29 kobo, FCMB garnered 3.54 per cent to close at N2.63 while Cutix Plc appreciated by 3.28 per cent to close at N3.15 per share.
UBA was top on the active stocks for the day with a sale of 60.44 million shares valued at N706.63 million. FCMB sold 17.50 million shares worth N45.733 million while Sovereign Insurance traded 12.44 million shares worth N2.49 billion.
Overall, the volume of stocks traded stood at 218.77 million shares valued at N2.23 billion, exchanging hands in 4,109 deals as against 214.58 million shares worth 4.23 billion in 3,675 deals on Friday.