Equity market sheds N448bn

The domestic equity market on Monday opened week on a negative note, declining by N448 billion as loss in the shares of BUA Cement, FBNHoldings, GTCO Plc United Bank for Africa, PZ UACN impacted negative on the market.

Market capitalization of listed equities declined by 0.74 per cent to N59.812 trillion from N60.260 billion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 740.01 basis points to 98708.90 points from 99448.91 points reported the previous day.

The low performance of the market was driven by loss in the shares of Lasaco Insurance, Daar communication, Legal Insurance, BuaCement, FBMHoldings which outweigh gain in the shares of Eunisell, Livestock, Transcorps, RTBriscoe, Jaiz Bank among others.

As result year to date return declined to 32.01 per cent as numbers of company closed in red were 28 against 18 firms that recorded positive growth.

An analysis of the investment showed that Eunisell led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N3.85 per unit, Lives stock Feeds followed with a gain of 9.97 per cent to close at N3.75 per unit, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria gained 9.95 per cent to close at N48.60 per share, RTBriscoe gained 9.84 per cent to close at N3.35 per share, Jaiz Bank added 9.28 per cent to close at N2.59 per share.

On the contrary, BuaCement topped losers chart, declining by 10 per cent to close at N99.00 per unit, Lasaco trailed with a loss of 9.77 per cent to close at N2.58 per unit, Daar Communications dipped by 9.38 per cent to close at N0.58 per share, Regal Insurance down by 9.93 per cent to close at N0.51 per unit, Japaul Gold fell by 6.56 per cent to close at N2.28 per unit.

Volume of transactions also went down by 107.677 million, representing 23.36 per cent as investors’ traded 353.182 million shares valued at N4.552 billion against 460.859 million shares cost N9.526 billion in 8772 deals.

Chams led market activities with 84.614 million shares valued at 169.230 million, United Bank for Africa followed with account of 27.001 million shares valued at N790.182 million, AccessCorp traded 22.221 million shares cost N503.637 million, Mcnichols exchanged 16.327 million shares valued at N25.239 million while Japaul Gold traded 15.200 million shares valued at N35.247 million.