The Equities market witnessed its first decline for the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX on Thursday, ending its two-day winning streak.
Profit-taking activities in telco heavyweight, MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC(-3.83%), as well as selloffs in some Tier-1 banking stocks: ZENITH BANK PLC (-5.18%), and GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC(-5.49%), undermined the gains in FBN HOLDINGS PLC(+0.94%), ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INCORPORATED (+0.33%) and FIDELITY BANK PLC(+3.29%) to bring the market to a negative close.
Consequently, the market capitalization lost 1.32% or ₦430.10bn to close at ₦32.232trn from yesterday’s ₦32,662trn. In the same vein, the All-Share Index declined 1.32% or 789.89 basis points to close at 59,195.21 basis points from 59,985.10 basis points.
At the close of trading activities, investors traded a total volume of 1.17 billion units of shares, worth ₦15.36 billion in 12,611 deals.
Since the start of equities trading this week, UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC has been the most traded stock by volume and today, it still led by 192.83 million units of shares traded, likewise GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC has maintained its position as the most traded stock by value this with ₦3.33 billion woth of shares traded today.
Market breadth closed negative with 40 declining issues outnumbering 36 advancing ones where SUNU ASSURANCES NIGERIA PLC led the decliners by 0.05k or 10.00%, while CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC and MCNICHOLS PLC followed with 0.11k or 9.73% and 0.07k or 9.33% loss respectively.
Top on the gainers table however is MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC with ₦6.25k or 10.00% gain while TOTALENERGIES MARKETING NIGERIA PLC follow with ₦30.60k or 10.00% and TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC trailed with ₦1.21k or 10.00% appreciation.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Banking (-4.2%), Insurance (-0.7%), Consumer Goods (-0.4%) and Industrial Goods (-0.2%) indices recorded losses, while the Oil & Gas (+12.1%) index advanced.
Confidence Okwuchi
