After several weeks of upswing, The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) stopped and closed on a negative note yesterday as profit-taking in Total, Presco, and 31 other stocks reduced market capitalization by N672 billion.
The market value of publicly traded stocks fell by N672 billion, or 1.99%, to N33.059 trillion from N33.731 trillion recorded the day before.
The All Share Index likewise declined, falling from 61949.24 points traded the day before to 60715.04 points, a loss of 1234.20 basis points.
While 44 stocks made up the losers chart on the price movement chart, 33 stocks saw their prices rise. Eterna Plc came in second with a gain of 9.96% to close at N25.40 kobo, Chams Plc gained 9.88% to close at 89 kobo, ETranzact added 9.87% to close at N7.79 kobo, and Skyways Aviation Handling also gained 9.87% to close at N12.25 kobo. Chi Plc was the top gainer on the chart.
Transcorp Hotels gained 9.83% to finish at N25.70 kobo. RTBriscoe increased by 9.68% to finish at 68 kobo. Unity Bank earned 9.30% to finish at N1.41 per kobo. Additionally, Honeywell flourmills climbed by 9.14% to close at N3.70 Kobo.
However, Wema Bank Plc dropped by 9.98% to conclude at N5.32 kobo, Lasaco Insurance dropped by 13.86% to close at N2.30 kobo, and PZ Cusson lagged with a decline of 10% to close at N20.70 kobo. Transcorp fell by 9.84% to close at N3.48 kobo, while BuaCement fell by 9.86% to close at N83.15 kobo.
UPL lost 9.82% to finish at N2.45 kobo. TrippleG lost 9.76% of its value to end the day at N3.05 kobo. LearnAfrica dropped 9.35% to finish at N2.91 kobo. Afromedia decreased 9.09% to finish at 20 kobo. To close at N1.81 kobo, livestock too lost 9.05 percent of its value.
Temi Popoola, the chief executive officer of NGX, has remarked that the Federal Government’s policies have continued to increase investors’ demand for stocks since President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration.
Long stretches of gloomy sentiments were experienced by equity investors on the NGX floor, however that has significantly reversed with President Tinubu’s policy comments on May 29, 2023.
For instance, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 18.9% and closed the first half of the year at 60,968.27 points, marking an important milestone for the index as it reached its highest level in 15 years since March 5, 2008, when it stood at 66,381.20 points, causing investors’ wealth to increase by N5.3 trillion in H1.
He stated that, “In the past one month, there has been a change in administration and I would say a couple of things have happened. There has been a material change in policy management. We have gone from an unorthodox approach to something more orthodox, more traditional. This has engendered a lot of hope and I think the financial markets responded in a very positive fashion.”
“So in the past, there has been scarcity of FX and this liberalization policy has started to resolve that. So, we expect that our corporates can run more efficiently which means that they can be more profitable in markets like ours.”
“We had a gap between the official rate and the parallel market in the past. This has normalized now and there is increased propensity by foreign investors to bring money into Nigeria and that of course helps the general FX situation. The country is now open to foreign capital and what this does is to transform and improve the economy,” Popoola concluded.
