Equities market sheds N135bn

The Nigerian Exchange on Wednesday closed lower, depreciating by N135 billion as losses in MTN Nigeria, Cadbury and others dragged the market into negative trajectory.                   

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.15 per cent to N89.063 trillion from N89.198 trillion reported the previous day.       

The NGX All Share Index also went down by 213.50 basis points to 140716.10 points from 140929.60 points traded on Tuesday. 

The negative performance recorded during the day was driven by losses in the stocks of May and Baker, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Honey well Flour Mills, UACN, MTN Nigeria. 

The trading session closed with a negative market breadth, recording 23 gainers against 28 losers, bringing year to date return to 36.72 per cent. Volume of trades decline by 316.52 million representing 41.69 per cent as investors traded 442.557 million shares against 759.077 units traded the previous day, valued of transactions dipped by 34.04 per cent to settle at N16.970 billion against N25.727 billion in 21684 deals.

An analysis of the investment showed that Dangote Sugar led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N59.40 per unit, Mecure followed with a gain of 9.95 per cent to close at N23.75 per unit, Cornerstone Insurance and NSLTech added 8.00 per cent each to close at N6.48 and N0.81 per share respectively, UPDReit gained 5.00 per cent to close at N7.35 per share. 

On the contrary, Deap Capital topped losers’ chart, dropping by 9.42 per cent to close at N1.73 per unit, Legend Internet trailed with a loss of 9.26 per cent to close at N4.90 per unit, Wapic Insurance dipped by 8.75 per cent to close at N2.92 per unit, RTBriscoe dipped by 8.16 per cent to close at N3.60 per share while May and Baker sheds 7.14 per cent to close at N16.75 per unit. 

Trading in the shares of Zenith Bank led market activities with 68.994 million shares valued at N4.757 billion, Access Holdings company followed with account of 47.305 million shares worth N1.175 billion, FirstHoldco traded 46.109 million shares cost N1.422 billion, Fidelity Bank exchanged 42.325 million shares valued at N868.022 million while GTCO traded 22.878 million shares cost N2.076 billion.