Bearish sentiments returned to the equities market on Wednesday as the benchmark index lost 0.14% after close of transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX.
Precisely, the All-Share Index fell by 0.14% or 76.9 basis points to close at 53,193.98 basis points as against the 53,270.88 basis points attained on Tuesday and market capitalization also shed 0.14% or ₦41.46bn to close at ₦28.68trns in comparison to yesterday’s ₦28.72trn.
Selloffs in Tier-1 banks, FBN HOLDINGS PLC (-5.50%), STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC(-1.47%) and UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA(-0.64%) were the primary drivers of the market’s weak performance.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains moderated to +0.4% and +24.5%, respectively.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed that the total volume of stocks traded stood at 248.96 million units of shares valued at ₦1.86bn exchanged in 4,265 deals.
TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION PLC was the most traded stock by volume at 103.56 million units, while PRESCO PLC was the most traded stock by value at ₦212.07 million.
Market breadth closed negative as 18 declining issues outnumbered 16 advancing ones.
Topping the losers table is CHAMPION BREW PLC with a fall from ₦3.88k per share to settle at ₦3.50k per share, losing 0.38 or 9.79%
CORNERSTONE INSURANCE PLC is next with its selling price losing 0.06 or 9.68% from yesterday’s 0.62k per share to close at 0.56k per share.
E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC followed when it declined in selling price from ₦3.00 per share to ₦2.71k per share, losing 0.29k or 9.67%.
On the flip side is CAVERTON OFFSHORE SUPPORT GRP PLC with an increase in selling price by 0.08k or 7.34% to close at ₦1.17k per share from ₦1.09k per share.
Right after is FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC with an increase from 0.34k per share to 0.36k per share gaining 0.02k or 5.88%.
And TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION PLC gained 0.07k or 5.69% from ₦1.23k per share to ₦1.30k per share.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Insurance (-1.8%) and Banking (-0.9%) indices recorded losses, while the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat. The Consumer Goods (+0.1%) index was the sole gainer of the day.
Hauwa Abu
