Equity market sheds N311bn

Activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Tuesday returned to negative performance declining by N311 billion as bears dominated trading for the day.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.33 per cent to N93.658 trillion from N93.969 trillion recorded on Monday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 487.66 basis points to 146940.29 points from 147427.95 points reported the previous day.

The low performance recorded in the market was driven by losses in the shares of Okomu oil, Access Holdings Company, NEM insurance, Eterna Plc, Stanbic IBTC, Transco Hotel and 25 others.

The market breath was negative with 22 gainers against 31 decliners, bringing year to date return to 42.76 per cent.

Volume of trades increased by 1.422 billion, representing 258.17 per cent as investors traded 1.973 billion shares against 550.863 million recorded the previous day. Value of transactions went up by118.179 per cent to settle at N30.231 billion in 23038 deals.

An analysis of the investment showed that Learn Africa led gainers table, growing by 9.57 per cent to close at N6.30 per unit, Mecure followed with a gain of 8.72 per cent to close at N32.40 per share, Deap Capital added 7.50 per cent to close at N1.72 per unit, International General Insurance increased by 6.52 per cent to close at N2.45 per unit, RTBriscoe up by 5.96 per cent to close at N3.20 per share.

Conversely, AustinLaz and Eterna Plc topped losers’ chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N2.07 and N31.95 per unit respectively. Transco Hotel trailed with a loss of 9.95 per cent to close at N155.60 per share, Ikeja Hotel down by 9.65 per cent to close at N28.10 per share, UACN fell by 9.09 per cent to close at. N88.00 per share.

Transactions in the shares of Entranzact led market activities with 1.026 billion shares valued at N7.495 billion, Access Holdings company followed with account of 183.556 million shares cost N3.768 billion, Cornerstone Insurance traded 115.978 million shares cost N609.382 million, Conhall Plc exchanged 79.417 million shares cost N319.326 million while FCMB traded 78.085 million valued at N850.563 million.