BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
At the close of Tuesday’s trading session, the local equities market plunged by 1.86 percent to close at 50,442.37 points following profit taking activity, especially on large caps.
Consequently, the year-to-date loss of the NGX ASI fell to 18.09 percent even as the number of losers, 37 outnumbered that of the three gainers at the close of trading session.
Notably, mid and large cap stocks suffered losses as investors sold part of their holdings in INTBREW (-9.91%), MTNN (-9.62%), UCAP (-8.33%), NB (-4.76%), ZENITHBANK (- 3.23%) and FLOURMILL (-3.03%).
Sectoral performance was weak as four of the five indices tracked closed in red territory; – the NGX Banking Indices, NGX Insurance Indices, NGX Consumer Goods Indices and the NGX Oil/Gas Indices fell by 1.85 percent, 1.69 percent, 1.27 percent and 0.49 percent respectively.
However, the NGX Industrial Indices closed flat. Market activity was strong today, as the volume of stocks traded rose by 57.98 percent to 156.17 million units; while, the value of stocks traded increased by 16.78 percent to N2.93 billion.
Meanwhile, NIBOR rose for most maturities tracked on liquidity strain.
Elsewhere, NITTY fell for all maturities tracked amid sustained buy pressure.
In the OTC bonds market, the values of the FGN bonds remained unchanged for most maturities tracked. On the flip side, the values of FGN Eurobond depreciated for all maturities tracked amid bearish sentiment.
