Equity market closes southward, sheds N112bn

The nation’s equity market on Monday opened week on a negative note, declining by N112 billion as investors embarked on profit taking activities.

Market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated by 0.20 per cent to N55.282 trillion from N55.394 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also went down by 227.67 basis points to 96205.84 points from 96433.53 point it closed on Friday.

The negative performance of the market was driven primarily by sell off and profit taking in the shares of Zenith Bank, AccessCorp, TransPower, Dangote Sugar, Julius Berger, Jaiz Bank, PZ Cusson, Nascon and 26 others.

The market recorded 34 gainers against 20 losers, as year to date return went down to 28.66 per cent.

An analysis of the investment showed that Tantalizer and Eterna Plc led gainers table with 10 per cent each to close at N0.77 and N33.00 per share respectively.

Oando Plc followed with a gain of 9.95 per cent to close at N89.50 per share, FTNCocoa up by 9.93 per cent to close at N1.66 per unit, UACN gained 9.81 per cent to close at N22.95 per share.

On the contrary, Julius Berger recorded the highest loss during the day dropping by 10 per cent to close at N153.43 per unit, Transpower trailed with a loss of 9.99 per cent to close at N301.70 per share, Mcnichols declined by 9.40 per cent to close at N1.34 per unit, UPL fell by 8.99 per cent to close at N2.43 per unit. Cutix Plc sheds 6.00 per cent to close at N2.82 per unit.

Volume of trades increased by 381.868 million, representing 97.29 per cent as investors traded 774.377 million shares valued at N14.647 billion in 10412 deals against 392.509 million shares cost N12.023 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 7981 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Jaiz Bank led market activities with 247.044 million shares valued at N537.123 million, Zenith Bank followed with account of 173.485 million shares worth N6.419 billion, FBNHoldings exchanged 41.503 million shares valued at N967.496 million, GTCO Plc traded 33.922 million shares valued at N1.539 billion while Japaul Gold exchanged 27.800 million shares valued at N74.786 million.