Amid protests, equity market sheds N235bn

The domestic equity market on Thursday closed southward, depreciating by N235 billion.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by N0.42 per cent to N55.278 trillion from N55.573 trillion reported on Wednesday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 414.46 basis points to 97359.76 points from N97774.22 points it closed the previous day.

Though the market saw dominance of bullish activity with 22 gainers  outnumbering 19 losers, the year to date return declined further to 30.21 per cent at the close of trading on Thursday.

A review of the investment showed that United Capital led gainers table with 9.95 per cent to close at N11.05 per share, Afriprudential and Cutix Plc followed with a gain of 9.94 each per cent to close at N9.40 and N5.64 per unit respectively. Tantalizer Plc added 9.53 per cent to close at N0.46 per share UPDC REIT added 8.99 percent to close at N4.85 per share.

On the contrary, Mecure topped losers chart topped losers, declining by 9.94 per cent to close at N8.15 per unit, Thomas Way trailed with a loss of 9.74 per cent to close at N1.76 per unit, Wapic Insurance down by 8.24 per cent to close at N0.78 per unit, Oando Plc fell by 8.0 per cent to close at N23.00 per share Dangote Sugar dipped by 7.67 per cent to close at N34.30 per share.

Volume of shares declined by 1.272 billion, representing 69.25 per cent as investors traded 565.1 million shares valued at N8.530 billion in 6821 deals against 1.838 billion shares cost N23.113 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 10847 deals.

Trading in the shares Fidelity Bank led market activities with 372.914 million shares cost N3.944 billion, United Bank for Africa followed with account of 23.029 million shares valued at N458.087 million, Zenith Bank traded 19.242 million shares cost N651.439 million, Oando Plc exchanged 19.035 million shares cost N445.427 million while AccessCorp sold a total of 15.757 million shares cost N289.552 million.