Despite opening with promising outlook for investors on Monday and recording broad sectoral gains today, the Nigerian equities market closed in the red at the end of the trading session.
The downturn in the local bourse was driven primarily by losses in stocks such as LIVESTOCK (-9.71%), MTNN (-6.05%), and INTBREW (-3.19%), among others.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on the trading trend showed that the market’s All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.17% to close at 105,931.18 points, with the attendant drop in market capitalization by N116.28 billion to close at N66.57 trillion on Tuesday.
Even then, the data trading activity contrasted with the index performance as both trading volume and value surged by 46.44% and 191.37% respectively with 733.05 million units traded during the session, amounting to N35.28 billion.
The NGX data further reflected that sentiment across the segregated market was positive as four out of the five indices closed in the green, except the industrial index, which closed flat.
An analysis of the sectoral indices indicated that the Banking index led the gainers’ chart with a 1.30% gain driven by gains ACCESSCORP 1.48%, GTCO 1.19%, UBA 2.19%, followed by the Insurance index which appreciated by 0.53% INTENEGINS 5.07%, MANSARD 3.26%, SOVRENINS 2.13%.
Similarly, the Consumer Goods index gained 0.48% buoyed by gains in CADBURY 9.91%, CHAMPION 9.79%, HONYFLOUR 7.26% and NB 5.93%, while the Oil and Gas index increased by 0.09% on the a back of gains in ETERNA 9.46% and OANDO 0.12%
The data showed that LEGENDINT continued to attract investors as it topped the gainers chart following a 10% price appreciation of its price to close at N8.25 just as LIVESTOCK recorded the lowest decline, deprecating by (-9.71%) to close at N7.72.
The NGX reported that FIDELITYBK topped the volume chart with traded 285.15 million units, representing 38.90% of the total volume traded while on the value chart, MTNN after exchanging N20.93 billion in value and recording a 6.07% decline in its share price, closed at N240.
