Equity market sheds N911bn

Bearish sentiments dominated the nation’s stock market on Wednesday as investors incurred a loss of N911 billion, as loss in the highly capitalised stock weigh down market activities during the day.

The NGX All Share Index also decreased by 1526.14 basis points to 102095.95 points from 103622.09 points traded the previous day.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 1.44 per cent to N62.256 trillion from N63.167 trillion it closed on Tuesday.

This downturn resulted in 39 companies declining compared with 29 gainers, bringing year to date return in negative to -0.81 per cent. 

An analysis of the investment showed that Nascon, SUNU Assurance and Dangote led gainers table during the day with 10 per cent each to close at N38.50, N6.71 and N36.85 per unit respectively. Skyavn followed with 9.95 per cent to close at N33.15 per unit, Austin Laz added 9.94 per cent to close at N1.99 per unit.

On the contrary, Universal insurance and Dangote Cement topped losers’ chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N0.63 per unit and N387.90 per shares respectively. JohnHolt Plc trailed with a loss of 9.99 per cent to close at N8.47 per unit, TransPower fell by 9.97 per cent to close at N324.00 per share, Omatek dipped by 9.89 per cent to close at N0.82 per share.

Volume of transactions declined by 75.616 million, representing 14.79 per cent as investors traded 435.541 million shares worth N9.442 billion in 12098 deals against 511.157 million shares worth N12.758 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 13052 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Universal insurance led market activities with 70.309 million shares worth N46.389 million, AIICO Insurance followed with account of 39.681 million shares cost N67.510 million, AccessCorp traded 16.840 million shares valued at N413.986 million, LiveStock sold a total of 16.822 million shares valued at N106.765 million while Nigerian Breweries exchanged 16.194 million shares worth N518.151 million.