Equities market opens December with bearish tilt amidst robust trade

The local bourse opened the new month mixed albeit with a bearish tilt as the benchmark index closed marginally lower by 0.01 per cent to settle at 47,656.64 basis points.

At the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, the market went lower as a 1.6 per cent loss in the share price of MTN Nigeria underpinned the one basis point decline in the All-Share Index to 47,656.64 basis points.

Accordingly, the Year-to-Date return was unchanged at +11.6 per cent, just as the market capitalisation was unchanged at N25.96 trillion.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed as an equal number of 11 tickers gained and lost. On the performance board, UPDCreit and Nigerian Breweries recorded the most significant gains of the day after their share prices went up by 9.1 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively; while Honeywell Flour and RTBriscoe topped the losers’ list after their respective share prices depreciated by 7.9 per cent and 7.4 per cent.

Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking and Consumer Goods indices recorded gains having appreciated by 2.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively; while the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices recorded a share decline of 0.1 per cent, respectively. The Industrial Goods index remained flat.

However, trading was impressive as analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 115.63 per cent. A total of 172.90 million shares valued at N2.84 billion were exchanged in 3,073 deals.