Equity market sheds N8bn

Omeiza Bilal

The domestic equity market on Monday opened week in a bearish note, declining by N8 billion.

Market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated by 0.014 per cent to N56.572 trillion from N56.580 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also went down by 14.92 basis points to 100007.11 points from 100022.03 points it closed on Friday.

As result the year to date return declined further to 33.75 per cent as NGX printed 22 gainers against 24 decliners.

An analysis of the trading showed that VeritasKapital led gainers table, appreciating by 9.57 per cent to close at N1.26 per share, Daar Communications followed by 8.33 per cent to close at N0.52 per unit, Conoil added 8.26 per cent to close at N136.95 per share, Neimeth international Pharmaceutical up by 7.45 per cent to close at N1.74 per unit while Ikeja Hotel added 7.25 per cent to close at N7.40 per share.

On the contrary, PZ recorded the highest loss during the day, shedding 10 per cent to close at N19.80 per unit, CWG trailed with a loss of 9.80 per cent to close at N6.90 per unit Chams dipped by 9.66 per cent to close at N2.15 per share, International General Insurance fell by 9.55 per cent to close at N1.45 per unit, Conhall Plc down by 9.27 per cent to close at N1.37 per share.

Volume of trades increased by 277.319 million, representing 67.20 per cent as investors traded 689.982 million shares valued at N7.165 billion in 9635 deals against 412.663 million shares cost N6.022 billion exchanged hands  in 8551 deals.

Transactions on the shares of EllahLakes led market activities with 271.486 million shares valued at N814.388 million, Universal Insurance followed with 42.054 million shares worth N14.894 million, GTCO Plc traded 40.842 million shares cost N1.937 billion, United Bank for Africa exchanged 35.983 million shares valued at N846.917 million while AIICO Insurance traded 28.825 million shares cost N32.522 million.