Again, the Nigerian Equities market dipped further into the bear territory on Thursday as selloffs in the two NGX-listed telecom stocks, AIRTEL AFRICA PLC (-10.00%), and MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC (-1.20%), weighed heavily on the overall market.
Precisely, the All-Share Index declined by 3.23% to close at 47,259.27 points, the lowest level in almost six months since 12 April, while the market capitalisation shed ₦859.18bn to close at ₦25.74trn.
Analysis of Thursday’s market activities showed that a total of 140.67m units of shares valued at ₦2.52bn were exchanged in 4,371 deals where GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC was the most traded stock by volume at 27.73 million units of shares, while GEREGU POWER PLC remains the most traded stock by value at ₦586.76 million.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative with 23 declining issues outnumbering 14 advancing ones.
To lead the laggard’s table is AIRTEL AFRICA PLC with a previous selling price of ₦2,000.00 dropping to ₦1,800.00, and shedding off ₦200.00 or 10.00 percent.
PRESCO PLC followed with a fall from ₦142.60k per share to ₦128.35k per share, losing ₦14.25k or 9.99 percent.
And OKOMU OIL PALM PLC trailed with a fall from ₦188.30k per share to ₦169.50k per share by ₦18.80k or 9.98 percent.
On the flip side, GEREGU POWER PLC led the gainer’s table by advancing from a previous selling price of ₦110.00 per share to close at ₦120.90k per share, gaining ₦10.90k or 9.91 percent.
Next is LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC with a rise from ₦1.02k per share to ₦1.12k per share, by 0.10k or 9.80 per cent. Then CUTIX PLC upped from ₦2.00 per share to ₦2.16k per share gaining 0.16k or 8.00 per cent.
Thursday’s loss was reflected across board even as sectoral performance was negative with the Banking (-0.9%), Industrial Goods (-0.3%), Insurance (-0.3%), and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices losing, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
