Equities market bows to sell pressure as ASI dips by 2.47%

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) succumbed to sell pressure on Thursday as the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 2.47 per cent to close at 64,046.93 basis points, ending its five-day winning streak.

The lull at the local bourse was largely attributable to selloffs in index heavyweight, Dangote Cement, alongside Nestle Nigeria and Access Holdings leaving the share prices of these big-cap stocks lower by 9.62 per cent, 1.34 per cent and 4.16 per cent, respectively.

Due to the weak performance for the day under review, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 24.97 per cent.

Equities investors, therefore, lost N883.39 billion from their overall investment as the market capitalisation settled at N34.87 trillion at the end of trading activities on Wednesday.

Also, the market breadth closed negatively with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. On the performance board, FBN Holdings topped 46 others on the laggard’s table having depreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent, while Courtville Business Solutions led four others on the leader’s log having appreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent.

However, activities at the local bourse was impressive as analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 34.87 per cent. A total of 1.16 billion shares valued at N12.69 billion were exchanged in 13,878 deals.

United Bank for Africa led the volume and value charts with 177.79 million units traded in deals worth N2.44 billion.

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