Despite its remarkable return accruals to investors on Thursday, Nigerian equities market declined in value today by 0.30%, bringing the week-to-date gain down to 2.75% from 3.01%, representing a 1.46% weekly gain.
The loss of momentum in the local bourse came despite sector-wide gains, as sell-offs in select stocks DANGCEM (-10.00%), VFDGROUP (-7.57%), DANGSUGAR (-2.03%), ACCESSCORP (-0.21%), and TRANSCORP (-1.94%) weighed on the overall market.
As a result, investors lost N202.15 billion, dragging the market capitalization down to N66.46 trillion from N66.66 trillion it closed the preceding trading session.
According to data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on the day’s trading, despite the market’s decline, trading activity remained upbeat as total volume traded rose by 30.41% to 428.08 million units, while the value of transactions surged by 94.54% to N20.17 billion, recorded across 14,284 deals.
The data showed that LEGENDINT, IKEJAHOTEL and INTBREW led the gainers’ chart as they recorded the daily maximum return of 10.00% while DANGCEM recorded the steepest decline of 10%.
On traded volume, GTCO 3.11% dominated the market with 60.73 million units, accounting for 14.19% followed by FIDELITYBK, which traded 41.40 million units while on the value side, MTNN recorded the highest turnover at N8.24 billion with the share price closing at N255.50, followed by GTCO, with N3.80 billion traded value
A further analysis of the trading session reflected that four out of the five sectors traded in the green with the Consumer Goods index leading the gainers’ chart, appreciating by 2.21% following gains in INTBREW 10.00%, CADBURY 9.92%, NASCON 9.74%, MCNICHOLS 9.20% and UNILEVER 8.96%.
Also, the Banking sector recorded a 1.55% gain buoyed up by gains in ETI 9.40% GTCO 3.11%, WEMABANK 2.92% and ZENITHBANK 2.20% and was followed closely is the Insurance index, which gained 1.50% on the back of gains in MANSARD 6.71%, LINKASSURE 6.56%, GUINEAINS 6.25%, LASACO 5.94%, AFRIPRUD 3.31% and AIICO 3.23%. Similarly, the Oil and Gas recorded a marginal gain of 0.07% as ETERNA 9.92% and JAPAULGOLD 6.60% aided the index to stay afloat.
However, on the flip side the Industrial Goods index was the lone loser, declining by 4.73% on the back of decline in DANGCEM (-10.0%) offset gains in CAP 2.30%, CUTIX 0.88% and WAPCO 2.27%
Meanwhile, at the foreign exchange (FX) market, the Naira marginally appreciated against the US dollar to close at N1,601.82/$1.
