Investors at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, particularly foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), reacted negatively to the shocking announcement that Emirates Airlines would suspend operations in Nigeria beginning next month due to an inability to repatriate approximately $85 million trapped in the country due to the country’s foreign exchange (FX) crisis.
The news emerged early in the morning, shortly before real trading activity resumed on the exchange’s floor, causing panic in selling Nigerian stocks during the trading day.
Despite the spike in crude oil prices, Nigeria has struggled to meet customer FX requests due to a supply deficit. Due to theft and corruption, the country has not been able to generate additional money from crude oil sales.
On Thursday, the domestic stock market further depreciated by 0.29 per cent on profit-taking in almost all the key sectors of the bourse.
Only the banking sector closed in the green territory by 0.18 per cent as the insurance space lost 1.41 per cent, the industrial goods counter depreciated by 0.51 per cent, the consumer goods index fell by 0.33 per cent. In comparison, the energy counter declined by 0.10 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) depleted by 144.79 points to 49,546.38 points from 49,691.17 points, while the market capitalisation shed N78 billion to close at N26.724 trillion verse N26.802 trillion in the earlier session.
Kemi Filani News reports that investor sentiment was strongly weak yesterday as the stock exchange ended with 24 depreciating stocks and 12 appreciating equities due to the disturbing development.
NEM Insurance lost 9.98 per cent to trade at N3.97, Okomu Oil depreciated by 9.96 per cent to N195.30, University Press went down by 9.91 per cent to N1.91, Lasaco Assurance shed 9.57 per cent to sell for N1.04, while Multiverse weakened by 8.70 per cent to N2.10.
On the flip side, FTN Cocoa gained 10.00 per cent to close at 33 Kobo, Regency Assurance rose by 8.70 per cent to 25 Kobo, Prestige Assurance improved by 8.33 per cent to 52 Kobo, Red Star Express climbed higher by 5.88 per cent to N2.70, while Caverton increased by 3.96 per cent to N1.05.
During the session, a total of 147.0 million stocks worth N2.7 billion were traded in 3,180 deals as against the 128.8 million stocks worth N4.1 billion traded in 3,492 deals a day earlier, representing an increase in the volume of transactions by 14.13 per cent, a decline in the value of trades by 35.75 per cent and a reduction in the number of deals by 8.93 per cent.
A breakdown showed that FBN Holdings accounted for 39.0 million units valued at N431.9 million, UBA contributed 13.0 million units worth N91.2 million, and Access Holdings recorded 10.2 million units worth N84.4 GTCO sold 6.5 million units for N132.2 million. In comparison, Stanbic IBTC transacted 6.2 million units worth N172.9 million.
