Equities market opens weeks negative with 0.2% decline in ASI

At the start of the trading week on Monday, the local stock market closed in decline as the All-Share Index dropped by 0.15 percent to 105,799.17 basis points, bringing the year-to-date return to 2.79 percent.

Market capitalisation also fell by 0.01 percent to ₦66.34 trillion, influenced by the listing of 16,666,666,667 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at ₦4.50 per share, offered through a private placement by Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc.

This resulted in a ₦7.8 billion loss in equities by the close of the session.

The overall market downturn dampened investor sentiment, reflected in weak market breadth, with 18 stocks advancing while 35 declined.

On the performance board, top gainers included Academy Press, Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, Tantalizers, Dangote Sugar, and Stanbic IBTC Financial Holdings, whereas eTranzact, Sunu Assurance Nigeria, Prestige Insurance, Sovereign Insurance, and Red Star Express led the list of losers.

Sectoral performance was largely negative, as the Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods, and Oil & Gas sectors recorded losses of 0.20 percent, 1.70 percent, 0.38 percent, and 0.19 percent, respectively, while the Industrial Goods and Commodity sectors remained unchanged at 0 percent.

Trading activity was subdued, with total transaction volume and value declining by 36.38 percent and 36.25 percent, respectively.

However, the number of deals surged by 27.74 percent, with 477.51 million units traded across 13,520 transactions, amounting to ₦7.05 billion in value.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE