Equity market sheds N176bn

The nation’s equity market on Wednesday closed southward depreciating by N176 billion as loss in the shares of MTN Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Nascon, Jaiz Bank AccessCorp and others impacted negatively on the market.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.32 per cent to N55.261 trillion from N55.437 trillion it closed on Tuesday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 306.48 basis points to 96203.65 points from 96510.13 point the previous day.

Although the market saw dominance of the bullish activity with 35 gainers, against 14 losers, the gain in the shares of IMG, Oando, Chams Eterna livestock outweighed huge losses recorded by some capitalised stocks.

As result , year to date return declined to 28.66 per cent at the close of trading on Wednesday.

An analysis of the investment showed that IMG led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N26.40 per unit, Chams Plc followed with a gain of 9.95 per cent to close at N2.32 per share, Oando Plc added 9.94 per cent to close at N63.60 per share, Livestock Feeds gained 9.91 per cent to close at N2.44 per share, Eterna Plc added 9.84 per cent to close at N27.90 per unit.

On the contrary, Neimeth international Pharmaceutical recorded the highest loss with 9.09 per cent to close at N2.00, Tanterlizer trailed with a drop of 8.64 per cent to close at N0.74 per share, MTN Nigeria fell by 7.91 per cent to close at N184.00 per unit, Thomas Way dipped by 7.06 per cent to close at N1.58 per unit, Jaiz Bank went down by 6.25 per cent to close at N2.25 per share.

Volume of trades went up by 3.45 million, representing 0.78 per cent as investors traded 446.609 million shares valued at N4.531 billion in 10148 deals against 443.156 million shares worth N5.635 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 8493 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Universal insurance led market activities with 52.603 million shares valued at N18.782 million, Japaul Gold followed with account of 51.804 million shares worth N145.317 million, Prestige insurance traded 35.820 million shares cost N19.525 million, Tanterlizer exchanged 35.142 million shares valued at N28.223 million while Chams exchanged 28.728 million shares cost N65.523 million.