Trading in equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a negative note today as the All Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.77 percent to close at 35,086.67 basis points as against 0.44 percent depreciation recorded on Wednesday.
The sluggish performance of the market could be linked to losses recorded in the shares of medium and large capitalised stocks.
NEM Insurance led 11 gainers as against 27 Losers topped by Mansard Insurance at the end of today’s session, an unimproved performance when compared with previous day’s investment rating
As expected, the market turnover closed negative as volume dropped by 17.52 percent as against 1.58 percent increase recorded on Wednesday.
According to data provided by the NSE on the day’s trading, United Bank for Africa, NEM Insurance and Access Bank were the most active stocks while Nigerian Breweries and Guaranty Trust Bank topped market value list.
Analysts at Afrinvest attributed the bearish performance of the market to profit taking and market reaction to yesterday’s Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) fines on listed banks, namely Stanbic IBTC Bank whose stock depreciated -2.6% and Diamond Bank with -9.4% drop in share value.
Despite the bearish outlook of the market, the analysts expressed optimism of an upturn of the trend on Friday as investors would likely take positions in bellwethers with attractive entry price.
