Stock investors lose N32bn amid selloffs

Stock market investors lost N32 billion on Wednesday as bearish sentiment continued to dominate trading on the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.(NGX) for seven consecutive sessions.

Selloffs in Zenith Bank, Access Corporation, Transnational Corporation, Nigerian Breweries, and Unilever, among other declined equities further weakened the market’s performance.

Specifically, market capitalisation sheds N32 billion or 0.06 per cent to close at N55.513 trillion, having opened at N55.545 trillion.

The All Share Index which opened at 97,830.65, also lost 0.06 per cent or 56.43 points to close at 97,774.22.

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Consequently, the Year-To-Date return depreciated to 30.76 per cent.

Also, market breadth closed negative with 29 laggards and 27 leaders on the floor of the Exchange.

Berger Paints, Cutix Plc, and Nigeria Aviation Handling Company led the losers’ table by 10 per cent each to close at N13.50 and N5.13, N35.10 per share respectively.

Nigerian Breweries trailed by 9.82 per cent to close at N25.25, while SCOA Nigeria Plc lost 9.77 per cent to close at N1.94 per share.
On the gainers’ table, Industrial Medical Gas(IMG), Veritas Kapital and UPL led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, 99k, and N2.42 per share.

Cornerstone Insurance followed by 9.63 per cent to close at N2.05 and Academy Press rose by 9.50 per cent to close at N1.96 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 188.89 per cent.

A total of 1.84 billion shares valued at N23.11 billion were exchanged in 10,847 deals, compared to 399.39 million shares valued at N8 billion traded in 10.447 deals recorded on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Fidelity Bank led the activity table in volume and value with 1.33 billion shares traded at a value of 14.04 billion, and Zenith Bank followed with 83.89 million shares worth N2.84 billion.

Veritas Kapital sold 45.37 million shares valued at N44.58 million, Ondo transacted N43.11 million shares valued at N1.11 billion and United Bank For Africa (UBA) traded 35.34 million shares worth N701.68 million. (NAN)