The market capitalisation of listed equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group Limited, NGX dropped for the first time in the New Year.
At the end of business on Wednesday, the eight-day rally in the market was halted as the market cap declined by N638bn to close at N44.885tn, a day after the market cap crossed the N45tn milestone.
However, the benchmark index of the exchange, the All-Share Index remained above 80,000 points, it depreciated by 1,167.46 basis points or 1.40 per cent to close at 82,024.38 in mid week trade.
The banking stocks were impacted most by depreciation as some of them suffered a loss except for Jaiz Bank which defied the trend to appreciate by 5.40 per cent to N2.93 and Stanbic IBTC Holdings which closed flat.
Meanwhile, the market capitalisation of Access Holdings Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings dropped below N1tn, a day after the lenders crossed the milestone. They closed the market with a capitalisation of N989bn and N926bn, respectively.
The downturn in the equity market came a day after the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, questioned some banks’ Managing Directors over a fraud that was uncovered at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The major drivers of the day’s market were the stocks of indigenous conglomerate, Transnational Corporation Plc, AccessCorp, United Bank for Africa, Jaiz Bank and Zenith Bank.
Market Breadth which is the measure of investors’ sentiment was negative resulting in 13 gainers and 61 losers.
The gainers were led primarily by stocks of Cadbury Plc for a second trading day with a 9.92% profit to close at N19.95k per share.
Other gainers include VeritasKap which gained 9.76% to close at N0.45k, Linkage Assurance made a 8.70% profit to close at N1.50k, while Transcorp Hotel gained 7.24% to close at N100 per share.
The losers’ list was led by Chams Holdings, Cornerstone Insurance, FTN Cocoa, May & Baker, Caverton and Consolidated Hallmark Holding Plc, which lost 10% each on its respective share prices to close at N2.16k, N1.80k, N1.98k, N5.49k, N2.07k and N1.35k.
Despite the downturn in the market, the transaction volume for the day rose to 1,641.28 million, from the previous day’s volume of 1,409.85 million units of shares valued at N25.37bn from 20,223 deals.
The volume and value drivers of the day’s market trend were led by stocks of Transcorp, AccessCorp and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc.
Olusola Akintonde
