The Nigerian equities market reversed Monday’s gains, as the benchmark index shed 0.31% or 158.87 basis points to close at 51,803.98 basis points from 51,962.85 basis points.
In the same vein, the market capitalization lost 0.31% or ₦86bn to close at ₦27.928trn from ₦28.014trn.
Investor’s selloff in index heavyweight, MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC (-2.04%) as well as Tier-1 banks, ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC (-1.60%), GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC (-0.72%) and ZENITH BANK PLC (-0.23%) underpinned the market’s weak performance.
This is despite the sustained price performance in FBN HOLDINGS PLC (+2.75%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC (+1.81%).
The total volume traded increased to 314.61 million units of shares, valued at ₦12.85 billion, and exchanged in 4,708 deals.
LIVINGTRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC led the volume chart with 100m units traded, while MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS PLC led the value chart in deals worth ₦9.87b.
Market breadth closed negative with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones where 19 stocks lost relative to 10 gainers.
Topping the losers’ list, is UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC with an opening selling price of ₦2.88 per share and a closing price of ₦2.60 per share, losing 0.28k or 9.72%.
Next is NIGERIAN EXCHANGE GROUP which commenced today’s trading at₦24.60k per share and closed at ₦22.95k per share, losing ₦1.65k or 6.71%.
Followed by CAVERTON OFFSHORE SUPPORT GRP PLC which declined from ₦1.05k per share to ₦1.00 per share, by 0.05k or 4.76%.
On the reverse side, SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC led the gainers when it upped from 0.25k per share to 0.27k per share, gaining 0.02k or 8.00%.
Then CHAMS PLC appreciated by 0.01k or 4.17% to 0.25k per share from 0.24k per share.
And REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC was right after with an increase from 0.26k per share to 0.27k per share by 0.01k or 3.85%, thereby recording the most significant gains of the day.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Oil & Gas (-0.5%) and Insurance (-0.1%) indices declined, while the Consumer Goods (+0.3%) index advanced. The Industrial Goods and Banking indices closed flat.
Hauwa Abu
