Bears sustain run as equity market sheds N289bn

Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange (NGX) on Wednesday closed in negative direction, shedding N289 billion as market sustains bearish run.

Market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated by 0.43 per cent to N66.653 trillion from N66.942 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also declined by 467.77 basis points to 106437.48 from 106904.25 points reported on Tuesday.

The negative performance during the day was driven by losses in the shares of Dangote Sugar, Okomuoil, Transcorp, Afriprudential, Ngx group, GTCO Plc, Nigeria Breweries Zenith Bank, Nascon and among others.

As a result, year to date return declined to 3.41 per cent as 43 companies closed in red against 12 firms that report positive performance.

A review of the trading during the day showed that Tantalizer led gainers table, gaining 9.64 per cent to close at N2.16 per unit, Uhomreit followed with a gain of 8.84 per cent to close at N52.95 per unit, Champion Breweries added 7.69 per cent to close at N4.20 per share, CWG gained 5.70 per cent to close at N8.35 per unit, Deap Capital grew by 5.56 per cent to close at N0.95 per share.

On the contrary, Caverton Business Solutions topped losers’ chart, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N2.52 per unit, Conhall Plc trailed with a loss of 9.87 per cent to close at N3.56 per share, Eterna Plc fell by 9.66 per cent to close at N34.15 per share, FTNCocoa dipped by 9.52 per cent to close at N1.54 per share, Linkage Assurance down by 9.09 per cent to close at N1.20 per unit.

Volume of trades declined by 4.108 million representing 1.04 per cent as investors traded 399.574 million shares valued at N11.309 billion in 11423 deals against 395.466 million shares worth N8.763 billion in 13967 deals.

Transaction in the shares of Fidelity Bank led market activities with 47.924 million shares valued at N803.467 million, AccessCorp followed with account of 35.602 million shares cost N853.881 million, United Bank for Africa exchanged 29.052 million shares cost N1.019 billion, Jaiz Bank traded 27.019 million shares cost N89.723 million, Zenith Bank sold a total of 21.648 million shares valued at N1.021 billion.