The bears resurfaced at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday as the equities trading takes a breather after eight consecutive days of bullish rally.
Specifically, the NGX All-Share Index fell by 1.40 percent to settle at 82,024.38 basis points.
The local stock market paused its winning streak in the trading session as profit-taking activities in MTN Nigeria Communication and tier-1 banking names undermined market performance.
Equities investors therefore lost N638.85 billion as the market capitalization closed at N44.89 trillion at the end of trading activities on Wednesday.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 60 tickers lost relative to 13 gainers. On the performance board, FTN Cocoa Processor and Caverton Offshore Support recorded the highest losses of the day having declined in share value by 10.0 per cent, respectively, while Cadbury and Veritas Kapital topped the gainers’ list after their respective share prices dipped by 9.9 percent and 9.8 percent.
A breakdown across the sub-sector gauges tracked indicated losses as three of the five sub-indices closed in the red zone. The Banking sector was the major laggard for the day with a loss of 7.97 percent, followed by the Insurance sector with a decline of 6.12 percent and the Oil/Gas sector with a decrease of 0.40 percent. On the flipside, the Consumer and Industrial indexes advanced by 2.45 percent and 1.39 percent, respectively.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 2.82 percent. A total of 1.64 billion shares valued at N25.38 billion were exchanged in 20,223 deals.
At the close of the trading session, Transnational Corporation emerged as the most traded stock by volume with 117.64 million units worth N1.54 billion, across 1,306 trades, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company led in traded value at N3.28 billion.
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