Equities market remains bearish, sheds N515bn
The Nigerian Exchange closed trading Thursday on a negative note, declining by N515 billion as investors continued to take profits in major stocks.
The session reflected cautious sentiment, with sell pressure across banking, insurance, oil and gas among others.
As a result, market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.41per cent to N124.238 trillion from N124.753 trillion reported the previous day.
The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 892.39 basis points to 193567.81 points from 194370.20 points recorded the previous day.
The market breath was negative, recording 38 decliners against 30 gainers, bringing the year-to-date return to 24.39 per cent.
Volume of trades also went down by 488.465 million, representing 35.99 per cent as investors traded 868.535 million shares against 1.357 billion recorded the previous day. Value of transactions also dropped by 23.97 per cent to settle at N31.484 billion in 69310 deals.
A review of the trading during the day showed that FTNCocoa led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N6.05 per unit, followed by RTBriscoe with a gain of 9.95 per cent to close at N11.38 per share, DeapCapital added 9.92 per cent to close at N6.98 per share, Japaul Gold gained 9.91 per cent to close at N3.77 per unit, EllahLakes increased by 9.72 per cent to close at N11.85 per share.
On the contrary, Jaiz Bank topped losers’ chart, dropping by 9.98 per cent to close at N12.63 per unit, Ikeja Hotel and JohnHolt trailed with a loss of 9.90 per cent each to close respectively at N37.75 and N8.65 per unit. Enamelware fell by 9.88 per cent to close at N36.50 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria Plc declined by 9.69 per cent to close at N61.95 per share.
Trading in the shares of Jaiz Bank led market activities with 78.943 million shares valued at N1.163 billion, Japaul Gold followed with 73.253 million shares cost N274.780 million Access Holdings Company traded 66.914 million shares valued at N1.744 billion, Chams Plc traded 56.890 million shares valued at. 239.567 million, Zenith Bank exchanged 45.494 million shares valued at N4.059 billion.
