Equities Sustain Bearish Trading, Losses N721bn

The bears continued to dominate the Niger equities market as the overall capitalisation lost N721 billion at the end of yesterday trading.

The All-Share Index declined by 1,316.87 points, representing a decline of 1.31 per cent, to close at 99,266.02 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value lost N721 billion to close at N54.317 trillion.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Dangote Sugar Refinery, Lafarge Africa, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Nigerian Breweries and FBNH Holdings (FBNH).

The market breadth closed negative as five stocks gained relative to 52 decliners. PZ Cussons Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at N29.15, per share. Juli followed with a gain of 9.93 per cent to close at N3.10 and AXA Mansard Insurance up by 1.53 per cent to close at N5.30, per share.

Nigerian Aviation Handling Company rose by 0.69 per cent to close at N29.00, while NPF Microfinance Bank gained 0.55 per cent to close at N1.84, per share.

On the other hand, FCMB Group, Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries, Oando, Red Star Express, Wema Bank, The Initiates Plc (TIP) and Sterling Financial Holdings Company led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N7.20, N31.95, N30.60, N9.90, N3.42, N7.02, N1.80 and N4.14 respectively, per share.

FBNH followed with a decline of 9.97 per cent to close at N27.55, while UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust lost 9.91 per cent to close at N5.00, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 41.28 per cent to 396.228 million units, valued at N5.826 billion, and exchanged in 10,549 deals. Transactions in the shares of Transnational Corporations (Transcorp) topped the activity chart with 52.567 million shares valued at N675.581 million. United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with 39.472 million shares worth N823.933 million, while Access Holdings traded 35.291 million shares valued at N620.906 million.

Zenith Bank traded 30.925 million shares valued at N1.004 billion, while Universal Insurance transacted 23.222 million shares worth N8.111 million.