Equity market sheds N726bn

The local equities market on Tuesday returned to bearish run, declining by N726 billion as losses in heavyweight stocks weigh down market activities.

Market capitalization of listed equities depreciated by 0.57 per cent to N125.857 trillion from N126.583 trillion tl reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index fell by 1130.87 basis points to 196066.11 points from 197196.98 points traded on Monday.

Trading activities showed that loses in the shares of MTN Nigeria, GTCO Plc, FCMB group, Oando Plc, Custodian Insurance among others impacted negatively on the performance of the market during the day.

The Market breath was negative with 42 decliner against 33 advancers, bringing the year to date return lower to 26.00 per cent

Volume of trades declined by 27.976 million, representing 3.66 per cent as investors traded 734.55 million shares against 762.526 million reported the previous day. Value of transaction also depreciated by 11.75 per cent to N27.56 billion in 64829 deals.

An analysis of the investment showed that Premier Paint led gainers table, appreciating by 9.97 per cent to close at N17.65 per unit, SUNU Assurance and Conoil Plc followed with a gain of 9.95 per cent each to close at N4.75 and N204.40 per unit respectively. Daar Communications increased by 9.84 per cent to close at N2.01 per share, Eterna Plc gained 9.56 per cent to close at N51.00 per share.

On the contrary, Mutual Benefits and Nascon topped losers chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N4.59 and N147.60 per unit respectively, Redstarex trailed with a drop of 9.94 per cent to close at N28.55 per unit, AustinLaz went down by 9.88 per cent to close at N3.74 per share while Scoa declined by 9.85 per cent to close at N27.90 per share while FTGinsurance declined by 9.59 per cent to close at N1.32 per share.

Transactions in the shares of Access Holdings company led market activities with 80.262 million shares valued at N2.008 billion, Mutual Benefits followed with account of 52.677 million shares cost N254.654 million, FTGinsurance traded 41.387 million shares valued at N57.710 per share, Zenith Bank exchanged 35.346 million shares worth N3.290 billion while Jaiz Bank traded 31.512 million shares cost N343.391 million.