Equity market sheds N248bn on first day of trading

Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange (NGX) closed southward, declining by N248 billion as bears dominated in the market.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.44 per cent to N56.175 trillion from N56.423 trillion it closed on Friday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 438.93 basis points to 99304.12 points from 99743.05 points recorded previously.

As a result , year to date return went down to 33.28 per cent as the NGX printed 26 losers against 20 gainers.

The poor performance of the market during the day was driven by depreciation in the shares of AccessCorp, Betaglass, Dangote Sugar, FBNHoldings, GTCO Plc, Zenith Bank, Wapco and 19 other which outweigh gain recorded in the shares of JohnHolt, Thamosway, NSLTECH, NEM Insurance, Fidelity Bank, FTNCocoa.

An analysis of the investment showed that NSLTech led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N0.55 per share, VFDground followed with a gain of 9.85 per cent to close at N44.60 per share, JohnHolt added 9.58 per cent to close for the day at N2.86 per unit, Thomas Way increased by 9.52 per cent to close at N2.30 per share while TranscoHotel up by 9.33 per cent to close at N98.40 per unit.

On the contrary International Breweries recorded the highest loss during the day, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N3.96 per unit, Deap Capital trailed with a loss of 8.93 per cent to close at N0.51 per share. Daar Communications fell by 8.77 per cent to close at N0.52 per share, Betaglass declined by 8.62 per cent to close at N53.00 while Oando Plc dipped by 7.36 per cent to close at N13.85 per unit.

Volume of trades increased 356.40 million, representing 57.74 per cent as investors traded 973.622 million shares valued at N19.315 billion in 9941 deals against 617.222 million shares costing N11.348 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 9273 deals.

FBNHoldings led market activities for the day, exchanging 627.604 million shares valued at N13.451 billion, Bataglass followed with account of 35.698 million shares cost N1.892 billion, Veritas Kapital traded 35.343 million shares valued at N33.472 million, Chams Plc sold a total of 26.151 million shares worth N60.268 million, AIICO Insurance exchanged 24.298 million shares cost N23.237 million.