Benchmark Index Snaps Into Negative Territory

By: Toyin Ajadi

After three consecutive days of gains this week, the major indices on the Nigerian equities market declined by
0.47%, taking the market into the negative territory.

The all share index dropped 0.47% or 463.86 points to close at 98,523.56 basis points from the 98,987.42 on Wednesday while the market capitalisation shed N267 billion to close at N56,614 trillion.

Despite the bearish sentiment, 28 gainers emerged at the end of trading as against 27 losers leaving the market sentiment in green.

The three top gainers for the day were FTN Cocoa Processors with a price appreciation of 9.82% closing at N1.79k, followed by Ellah Lakes with 9.8% price gain with a closing price of N4.48k and Deep Capital Management & Trust with 9.78% gain closing at N1.01k.

Conversely, the least of the decliners were Caverton Offshore support Group with 9.73% loss closing at N2.97k, Cadbury Nigeria with 9.39% loss and a closing price of N17.85k then Associated Bus Company which lost 8.73% to close at N1.15k.

United Bank for Africa was the toast of investors on Thursday with 29.2 million traded shares, followed by Access Holdings with 27 million shares.

At the end of the day’s trading, a total of 344, 35 million shares with market value of N6.61 billion were traded in 9,005 deals.

Olusola Akintonde