Bears still on rampage as equity market sheds N128bn

The nation’s equity market on Thursday continued on negative trend, declining by N128 billion as loss in the shares of Aradel , GTCO Plc, UACN, Wapco, Oando wipe out gains recorded in the shares Gold Breweries, Deap Capital, Trans Power, Jaiz Bank and 21 others.

Market capitalization of listed equities declined by 0.21 per cent to N59.431 trillion from N59.559 trillion reported on Wednesday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 210.15 basis points to 98081.38 basis points from 98291.53 points traded the previous day.

As a result the year to date return declined to 31.17 per cent as 16 companies closed in red against 25 firms that took positive direction.

An analysis of Investment showed that Gold breweries led gainers table, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N0.34 per unit, Deap Capital followed with a gain of 9.85 per cent to close at N0.13 per unit, Trans Power added 9.68 per cent to close at N29.20 per share, Jaiz Bank added 8.64 per cent to close at N0.19 per unit, Transco Hotel up by 7.78 per cent to close at N7.00 per share.

On the contrary, Aradel Plc topped losers chart, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N694.80 per unit, Regal Insurance trailed with a loss of 8.82 per cent to close at N0.62 per share, Daar Communications dipped by 6.78 per cent to close at N0.55 per unit, UAC of Nigeria declined by 6.70 per cent to close at N20.20 per share, Oando Plc sheds 5.82 per unit.

The volume of transactions went down by 18.243 million, representing 4.75 per cent as investors traded 239.308 million shares valued at N6.408 billion in 7318 deals against 257.551 million shares valued at N8.993 billion in 7776 deals.

Trading in the shares of Sterling Bank led market activities with 42.786 million shares valued at N213.021 million, Zenith Bank followed with 20.054 million shares cost N751.829 million, GTCO traded 19.631 million shares worth N1.000 billion, Access Bank exchanged 16.295 million shares valued at N324.621 million while United Bank for Africa sold a total of 11.108 million shares cost N271.645 million.