- Dollar sells at N811/$ at parallel market
BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The bears continued to dominate the local equities market as the NGX All-Share Index succumbed to a second successive loss, falling by 2.03 percent to 62,748.94 points on Thursday.
Market capitalisation as a result contracted by N706.77 billion to close at N34.17 trillion.
Specifically, selloffs in MTN Nigeria (-4.64%), Zenith Bank Plc (-2.04%), and GTCO (-5.56%) dragged the overall market offsetting gains in BUA Cement Plc. (+2.01%), Geregu Power Plc (+3.33%), and Dangote Sugar Plc (+9.94%).
Accordingly, the market is on track for the first week of loss in this quarter.
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return slipped to 22.43 percent.
Analysis of Thursday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 17.69 percent.
A total of 798.47 million shares valued at N10.45 billion were exchanged in 10,296 deals. UBA (-8.45%) led the volume charts with 99.02 million units while GTCO (-5.56%) led the value chart in deals worth N1.77 billion.
Market breadth closed negative at a 5.75 to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones.
STANBIC (-10.00%) topped 45 others on the laggard’s table, while DANGSUGAR (+9.94%) led seven others on the leader’s log.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the foreign exchange continued on Thursday as one dollar sold at an average rate of N811 at the parallel segment of the market.
This was 0.55 percent lost to the value of naira when compared to N806.50 per dollar quoted on Wednesday at the black market.
One of the traders said the demand for dollars was rising, coming from individuals who want to travel for the summer or other reasons.
On Wednesday, naira weakened at the parallel market, losing 0.80 percent of its value against the dollar on increased demand.
At the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) forex window, naira appreciated by 0.75 percent as dollars was quoted at N782.49 on Wednesday as against N788.42 quoted on Tuesday at the market, data from the FMDQ showed.