Equities Start Week Down By N90bn Loss

The domestic equities market yesterday opened the week on a negative note with a decline of N90 billion.

The All-Share Index (ASI) lost 162.76 points, representing a loss of 0.24 per cent to close at 67,037.93 points. Also, market capitalisation declined by N90 billion to close at N36.830 trillion.

The downturn was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Okomu Oil, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Eterna, Cadbury Nigeria and Oando.

This week, United Capital Plc stated that,  “we expect investor sentiment to continue to improve, particularly toward stocks with pending corporate actions and fantastic H1, 2023 financial performance.”

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 22 stocks lost relative to 19 gainers. Royal Exchange emerged the highest price gainer of 8.51 per cent to close at 51 kobo, per share.  Consolidated Hallmark Insurance followed with a gain of 6.96 per cent to close at N1.23, while NASCON Allied Industries advanced by 5.45 per cent to close at N58.00, per share.

Flour Mills Nigeria rose by 4.20 per cent to close at N31.00, while Dangote Sugar Refinery appreciated by 3.13 per cent to close at N62.60, per share. On the other side, Sovereign Trust Insurance and Stanbic IBTC Holdings led others on the losers’ chart with 10 per cent each to close at 36 kobo and N72.00 respectively, while Okomu Oil followed with a decline of 9.96 per cent to close at N236.80, per share.

Oando declined by 9.24 per cent to close at N8.35, while Omatek Ventures shed 8.70 per cent to close at 42 kobo, per share. Meanwhile, the total volume of trades declined by 3.6 per cent to 216.07 million units, valued at N3.55 billion, and exchanged in 5,965 deals.

Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA) led the activity with 32.621 million shares worth N579.345 million. Fidelity Bank followed with an account of 28.954 million shares valued at N238.066 million, while AIICO Insurance traded 15.607 million shares valued at N10.618 million.

Dangote Sugar Refinery traded 15.607 million shares worth N10.618 million, while Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) traded 10.504 million shares worth N65.424 million.