Equities market opens week bearish, sheds N94bn

The local equities market on Monday returned to bearish run, depreciating by N94 billion as bears dominated in the trading activities for the day.

The negative trajectory recorded during the day was driven by losses in the shares of Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, FBNHoldings, AccessCorp and 29 others.

This resulted in market capitalization of listed equities dropping by 0.10 per cent to N98.698 trillion from N98.792 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 148.90 basis points to 155496.15 points from 155645.05 points it opened for the week.

The market breath was negative with 25 gainers against 33 decliners, bringing year to date return down to 51.08 per cent.

Volume of trades declined by 707,997 million, representing 58.46 points as investors traded 503.003 million shares against 1.211 billion shares traded on Friday. Valued of transactions declined by 20.78 per cent to settle at N24.943 billion against N31.486 billion in 39972 deals.

An analysis of the transaction during the day showed that Aradel Plc led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N869.00 per unit, NEM insurance followed with a gain of 9.67 per cent to close at N32.90 per share, Aso Savings gained 9.09 per cent to close at N0.72 per unit, Eterna Plc added 8.75 per cent to close at N43.50 while Chams up by 7.59 per cent to close at N4.25 per unit.

On the contrary, Deap Capital topped losers’ chart, dropping by 9.71 per cent to close at N1.58 per share, Champion Breweries trailed with a loss of 9.64 per cent to close at N15.00 per share, Redstarex declined by 8.64 per cent to close at N10.05 per share, Wapic Insurance fell by 6.45 per cent to close at N2.90 per unit, Universal insurance down by 5.98 per cent to close at N1.10 per share.