Equities market opens week bearish as investors lose N3.3bn

Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba, Lagos

Opening the week, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ended mixed with a bearish tilt as the benchmark Index shed 0.01 per cent to settle at 55,788.37 basis points.

Losses in Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Wapco impacted on the overall bearish trade as the stock value of these companies depreciated 3.10 per cent, 1.89 per cent and 1.52 per cent.

As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 8.85 per cent.

Equities investors lost N3.34 billion as the market capitalisation settled at N30.39 trillion.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 21 tickers lost relative to 12 gainers. On the performance board, NGX Group and NPF MicroFinance Bank recorded the most significant losses of the day having deppreciated in share value by 9.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent, while University Press Limited topped the gainers’ list after the share prices appreciated by 9.9 and 7.7 per cent, respectively.

Given the bearish sentiment, performance across sub-indices tracked was largely negative except for the NGX Consumer Goods Index, which rose by 1.82 per cent, while the NGX Oil/Gas Index was unchanged from the previous day.

The NGX Banking, NGX Consumer Goods, and the NGX Industrial Indices decreased by 1.56 per cent, 0.71 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively.

In the broader market, the NGX Premium Index decreased by 36 basis points, while the NGX-30 Index was flat.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 70.36 per cent. A total of 179.03 million shares valued at N2.55 billion were exchanged in 4,296 deals.

NGX Group led the volume and value charts with 38.15 million units traded in deals worth N994.55 million.