Business

Equities market opens week weaker by 0.02% as investors lose N7.51bn

Opening the week, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited ended mixed with a bearish tilt as the benchmark Index shed 0.02 per cent to settle at 55,806.71 basis points.

Basically, renewed profit-taking activity, particularly on Chams, FBN Holdings, Oando, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Geregu Power shares impacted the overall lull at the local bourse as these shares dipped 9.76 per cent, 4.21 per cent, 3.39 per cent, 2.27 per cent, 0.88 per cent and 0.61 per cent.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns remained at +0.1 per cent and +8.9 per cent, respectively.

Equities investors therefore lose N7.51 billion as the market capitalization settled at N30.39 trillion by the end of the day’s trading sessions.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed as 27 tickers lost relative to 26 gainers. On the performance board, John Holt and Courtville recorded the highest losses of the day after their respective share prices dipped by 10.0 per cent and 9.8 per cent, while NEM Insurance and Omatek Computers topped the gainers’ list as their respective share prices appreciated by 10.0 per cent.

Performance for most sub-sectors was bullish as four of the five sectorial gauges closed positive: the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, and the NGX Oil/Gas indices advanced by 0.27 per cent, 1.31 per cent, 0.06 per cent and 2.55 per cent, respectively.

However, the NGX Industrial Index declined by 0.01 per cent.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 224.33 per cent.

A total of 369.78 million shares valued at N19.84 billion were exchanged in 7,221 deals. Geregu Power led volume and value charts with 52.49 million units traded in deals worth N16.37 billion.

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