The Nigerian Equities market commenced the week on a negative note, as the All-Share Index declined by 0.29%.
At the close of the day, the benchmark index stood at 48,879.74 basis points as against Friday’s 49,024.16 basis points, while the market capitalisation shed ₦77.92bn to close at ₦26.37trn when compared with Friday’s ₦26,45trn.
Investors profit taking activities in Tier-1 banks ZENITH BANK PLC (-3.50%), GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC (-0.85%), FBN HOLDINGS PLC (-2.45%) and ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC (-5.59%) were the primary drivers of the market’s weak performance.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed that a total of 173.46m units of shares valued at ₦2.39bn were exchanged in 4,926 deals where GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC led the volume and value charts with 71.19m units traded in deals worth ₦1.26bn.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative with 21 declining stocks lost relative to 9 advancers.
INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC (-9.1%) and RED STAR EXPRESS PLC (-7.8%) topped the losers’ list, while MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC (+9.8%) and R T BRISCOE PLC (+8.8%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
Analysing by sectors, the Insurance (+0.4%), and Oil & Gas (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Banking (-2.6%) and Consumer Goods (-0.4%) indices closed in the red. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
The market was closed on Monday to commemorate the nation’s 62nd Independence celebration, thus, Tuesday’s trading marks the start of the week as well as the beginning of transactions for October.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
