Equities market posts biggest loss in April as investors lose N1.1trn

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) market capitalisation recorded the biggest loss in the month of April with investors losing N1.1trn.

For eight consecutive trading days, the Nigeria bourse extended its losing streak as the benchmark index closed 1.93% weaker – the biggest single day decline since 19 February – to close at 99,808.34, according to analysis of yesterday’s trading.

The market’s weak performance was attributed to selloffs in telco heavyweight, MTNN (-1.32%) alongside Tier-1 banking tickers, GTCO (-3.66%), FBNH (-5.61%). 

Therefore, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 33.48%, while the market capitalisation lost N1.11trn to close at N56.45trn.

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Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 16.91%. A total of 403.89m shares valued at N8.38bn were exchanged in 10,170 deals.

ACCESSCORP (-8.63%) led the volume chart with 62.93m units traded while GTCO (-3.66%) led the value charts in deals worth N1.74bn.

Market breadth closed negative at a 0.14-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering the advancing ones.