Nigerian Exchange ,NGX Limited suffered a loss Friday last week, the third consecutive day it was closing lower. It lost 0.46% when trading activities ended yesterday.
The decline was triggered by heavy profit-taking in the insurance space, with its index depleting by 8.73% and the consumer goods counter losing 0.32%.
However, the banking index gained 0.56% and the energy industry appreciated by 0.05%, while the commodity and the industrial goods indices closed flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index ,ASI, retracted by 671.81 points to 144,628.20 points from 145,300.01 points and the market capitalisation came down by N425 billion to N91.502 trillion from N91.927 trillion.
Investors transacted 1.4 billion equities worth N13.9 billion 32,065 deals compared with the 2.5 billion equities valued at N22.2 billion traded in 43,515 deals on Thursday, indicating a decline in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 44.00%, 37.39% and 26.31 per cent, respectively.
Universal Insurance topped the activity log with 308.8 million shares valued at N371.1 million, AIICO Insurance sold 118.0 million equities worth N470.7 million, Mutual Benefits transacted 102.4 million stocks for N390.8 million, Veritas Kapital exchanged 70.4 million shares worth N160.0 million, and Sovereign Trust Insurance traded 62.2 million equities valued at N182.3 million.
The trio of Linkage Assurance, International Energy Insurance, and Lasaco Assurance lost 10.00% to sell for N2.43, N3.33, and N4.05 apiece, NEM Insurance depreciated by 9.97% to N32.50, and Meyer crashed by 9.95% to N16.75.
On the flip side, Mutual Benefits rose by 10.00% to N3.85, Ikeja Hotel gained 9.95% to finish at N22.65, Wema Bank appreciated by 9.90% to N22.75, Deap Capital improved by 9.52% to N1.61, and Tripple Gee increased by 8.32 per cent to N5.60.
With 39 price losers and 30 price gainers, the market breadth index of Customs Street ended negative on Friday, with weak investor sentiment.
