Again, the equities market extended losses recorded since the start of the week, as investors sold off MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC shares which fell 1.1%, GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC shares which declined 0.4% and ZENITH BANK PLC shares which fell 1.9%.
Thus, the All-Share Index declined by 0.5% or 215.18 to close on Thursday at 42,247.98 basis points from Wednesday’s close of 42,463.16 basis points.
In the same vein, the Market Capitalization declined 0.5% or 112 billion Naira from wednesday’s close of N22,157 trillion to close on Thursday at N22,045 trillion.
The total volume of trades stood at 324.02 million units, valued at N5.29 billion, and exchanged in 4,706 deals, where FBN HOLDINGS PLC was the most traded stock by volume and value at 113.36 million units and N1.35 billion, respectively.
Reflective of this loss is seen in the number of shares that gained as opposed to the losers. At the close of the trading activities on Thursday, only 17 stocks gained compared to the 34 stocks that declined as all others remained unchanged.
The most significant gains were seen in MEYER PLC which upped from a previous selling price of 0.20k per share to 0.22k per share by 0.02k or 10.00%, NEM INSURANCE PLC gained 0.14k or 7.33% from N1.91k per share to N2.05k per share and ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC upped from 0.51k per share to 0.54k per share by 0.03k or 5.88%.
Conversely, B.O.C. GASES PLC fell from N10.50k per share to close at N9.45k per share by N1.05k or 10.00%, UPDC PLC fell from 0.99k per share to 0.90k per share by 0.09k or 9.09% and TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC fell from 0.89k per share to 0.81k per share by 0.08k or 8.99 percent, recording the top three most significant losses of the day.
Analysing by sectors, the Oil and Gas index fell 3.5%, Insurance index fell 2.2%, Banking index fell 1.2% and Industrial Goods index fell 0.1%, while the Consumer Goods index upped 0.1% to become the sole gainer of the day.
Bilkisu Pai
