Equity market sheds N459bn

Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange on Wednesday took a positive direction, appreciating by N459 billion as more investors participated in trading for the day.

Market capitalisation of listed equities up by 0.49 per cent to N92.490 trillion from N92.031 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also appreciated by 723.83 basis points to 145719.09 points from 144995.26 points traded on Tuesday.

Although the market breath was negative with 29 gainers against 33 decliners, gains in shares of medium and capitalised stocks wipe out all losses to bring the year to date return higher to 41.58 per cent

An analysis of the investment showed that FTNCocoa led gainers table with 8.89 per cent to close at N6.00, Livestock Feeds followed with a gain of 7.43 per cent to close at N7.95 per share, Eterna Plc added 6.96 per cent to close at N4.50 per unit, Prestige insurance gained 4.94 per cent to close at N1.70 per share, Fidelity Bank grew by 4.74 per cent to close at N21.00 per share.

On the contrary, IMG recorded the highest loss fur Ng the depreciating by 9.97 per cent to close at N32.95 per unit, Living Trust Insurance trailed with a loss of 9.93 per cent to close at N5.35 per share, SUNU Assurance declined by 9.48 per cent to close at N5.25 per share, JaizBank fell by 7.53 per cent to close at N4.30 per unit while Chams Plc dipped by 6.25 per cent to close at N4.33 per unit.

Volume of trades increased by 18.318 million, representing 3.61 per cent as investors traded 525.725 million against 507.407 million recorded the previous day, Value of shares declined by 43.95 per cent to settle at N13.612 billion against N24.287 billion in 25597 deals.

Transactions on the shares of Conhall Plc led market activities with 83.544 million shares valued at N351.031 million, FirstHoldco followed with account of 36.538 million shares worth N1.132 billion, Jaiz Bank traded 28.728 million shares worth N125.555 million, Chams Plc exchanged 24.464 million shares cost N106.699 million, EllahLakes sold a total of 21.367 million shares cost N300.230 million.