Equity market opens week with N84bn loss

The Nigerian equity market closed the first trading week of September on a negative note with a 0.15% decline, falling from 96,580 points to 96,433 points.

Market capitalisation lost N84 billion week-on-week (W-o-W) to close at N55.394 trillion.

The index dropped by 0.15%, falling from its opening value of 96,580 points to close at 96,433 points, marking the beginning of September on a bearish note.

Across the sectoral spectrum, performance was in the mixed bag. The NGX Oil & Gas index recorded a weekly gain of 1.48 per cent, while NGX Banking index lost 0.23 per cent W-o-W.

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On the contrary, the NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, and NGX Industrial Goods indices closed the week down by 4.76 per cent, 1.18 per cent, and 0.13 per cent respectively.

Also, market breadth for the week was negative as 36 equities appreciated in price, 46 equities depreciated in price, while 69 equities remained unchanged.

Industrial & Medical Gases Nigeria led the gainers table by 32.58 per cent to close at N35.00, per share.

Berger Paints followed with a gain of 31.12 per cent to close at N18.75, while e-Tranzact International went up by 20.59 per cent to close to N6.15, per share.On the other side, R T Briscoe led the decliners table by 27.61 per cent to close at N2.57, per share. FTN Cocoa Processors followed with a loss of 18.38 per cent to close at N1.51, while Omatek Ventures declined by 18.18 per cent to close at 72 kobo, per share.

Overall, a total turnover of 2.141 billion shares worth N51.217 billion in 55,603 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.821 billion shares valued at N53.048 billion that exchanged hands prior week in 50,488 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.229 billion shares valued at N19.976 billion traded in 20,701 deals; contributing 57.40 per cent and 39.00 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Oil and Gas Industry followed with 262.484 million shares worth N17.996 billion in 14,275 deals, while the Services Industry traded a turnover of 155.587 million shares worth N532.941 million in 3,558 deals.

Trading in the top equities; Access Holdings, Oando and Zenith Bank (measured by volume) accounted for 517.336 million shares worth N24.454 billion in 15,502 deals, contributing 24.16 per cent and 47.75 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.