Bears persists as domestic equities shed N481bn

The local equity market on Thursday declined N481 billion as bears dominated the market following investors profit taking activities 

Market capitalisation of listed equities dropped by 0.86 per cent to N55.390 trillion from N55.871 reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 878.89 basis points to 101227.42 points from 102106.31 reported on Wednesday.

Consequently, the year to date gain decreased to 35.36 per cent as the Exchange printed higher losers of 51 companies against seven gainers.

A review of the investment showed that

Meyer Paint led gainers table with 9.97 per cent to close at N6.29 per unit, Juli Pharmaceutical followed with a gain of 9.52 per cent to close at N0.92 per share, Tantalizer gained 4.76 per cent to close at N0.44 per unit, Redstarex added 4.05 per cent to close at N3.85 per cent while Lasaco appreciated by 3.54 per cent to close at N2.63 per unit.

On the contrary, share price of four companies declined by 10 per cent at the close of trading on Thursday.Sterling Bank, Nascon went down by 10 per cent each to close at N5.31 and 58.50  per unit respectively.

Conhall Plc and Unity Bank Plc also dipped by 10 per cent to close at N1.44 and N2.52 per share. Eterna Plc followed with a gain of 9.95 per cent to close at N19.90 per unit.

Volume of Transactions increased by 478.381 million , representing 39.91 per cent as investors traded 478.381 million shares valued atN7.172 billion in 10957 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Universal insurance led market activities with 42.766 million shares valued at N16.093 million, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria followed with 41.353 million shares cost N528.072 million, Zenith Bank traded 31.746 million shares valued at N1.123 billion, United Bank for Africa exchanged 31.376 million shares cost N741.699 million.Acceddcorp sold a total of 31.213 million shares cost N729.398 million.