The Nigerian equities market began this week’s trading activities with mixed sentiments as investors buying interest in BUA FOODS PLC were offset by losses in ZENITH BANK PLC, GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC and LAFARGE AFRICA PLC stocks, albeit tilting to a bearish close.
Consequently, the market capitalisation dropped marginally by ₦4 billion Naira or 0.01% to close at ₦30,391 trillion from Friday’s ₦30,395 trillion. Similarly, the All-Share Index shed 0.01% or 6.14 basis points to settle at 55,788.37 basis points from 55,794.51 basis points.
At the close of Monday’s transactions, a total of 179.03 million units of shares, worth ₦2.55 billion were exchanged in 4,296 deals. NIGERIAN EXCHANGE GROUP was the most traded stock by volume and value at 38.15 million units of shares and ₦994.55 million, respectively.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 21 declining stocks outnumbered the 12 advancing issues.
NIGERIAN EXCHANGE GROUP topped the laggard’s log with the selling price dropping from ₦28.80k per share to ₦26.00 per share by ₦2.80 or 9.72%, NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC followed with a fall from ₦1.89k per share to ₦1.73k per share, losing 0.16k or 8.47%. And COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PLC declined from 0.48k per share to 0.45k per share by 0.03k or 6.25%.
Conversely, UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC led the advancers by 0.18k or 9.89% to close at ₦2.00 per share from Friday’s ₦1.82k per share. Next is CWG PLC gaining 0.07k or 7.69% from 0.91k per share to 0.98k per share. Then MULTIVERSE MINING AND EXPLORATION PLC followed with a 0.18k or 5.04% gain from ₦3.57k per share to ₦3.75k per share.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (-1.6%), Insurance (-0.7%), and Industrial Goods (-0.1%) indices declined, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The Consumer Goods (+1.8%) index was the sole gainer for the day.
