Bearish Performance Sustains As Equities Close July With N32bn Loss

The Nigerian equities market yesterday experienced another day of decline as investors continued to offload their holdings in stocks.

The All-Share Index (ASI) shed 56.43 points, representing a loss of 0.06 per cent to close at 97,774.22 points. Also, market capitalisation declined by N32 billion to close at N55.514 trillion.

The downturn was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Julius Berger, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), United Capital, NASCON Allied Industries and Nigerian Breweries.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 27 stocks gained relative to 29 losers. Industrial and Medical Gas Nigeria, Veritas Kapital Assurance and University Press emerged the highest price gainer of 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, 99 kobo and N2.42 respectively, per share.
Cornerstone Insurance followed with a gain of 9.63 per cent to close at NN2.05, while Academy Press advanced by 9.50 per cent to close at N1.96, per share.

On the other side, Berger Paints, Cutix and NAHCO led others on the losers’ chart with 9.87 per cent each to close at N13.50, N5.13 and N35.10 respectively, per share. Nigerian Breweries followed with a decline of 9.82 per cent to close at N25.25, while SCOA Nigeria shed 9.77 per cent to close at N1.94, per share.

The total volume of trades increased by 360.25 per cent to 1.838 billion units, valued at N23.114 billion, and exchanged in 10,847 deals. Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank led the activity with 1.331 billion shares worth N14.042 billion. Zenith Bank followed with an account of 83.89 million shares valued at N2.839 billion, while Veritas Kapital Assurance traded 45.372 million shares valued at N44.584 million.

Oando traded 43.1112 million shares worth N1.112 billion, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 35.326 million shares worth N701.680 million.