Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba
Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) extends its losing streak for the fifth consecutive session on Thursday, ending lower as the All Share Index (ASI) declined by 1.04 percent to settle at 54,915.61 basis points.
Notably, the 4.95 percent decline in the share price of MTN Nigeria Communication partly accounted for the weak performance witnessed in the equities market.
Also, the sustained sell-offs on financial service stocks such as Ecobant Transnational Incorporated, United Capital, FBN Holdings, Fidelity Bank, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company contributed to a depressed stock market session on Thursday, as these companies share prices dipped by 10.0 percent, 5.13 percent, 2.73 percent, 2 72 percent and 1.20 percent, respectively.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date return printed -1.6 percent and +7.2 percent, respectively.
Equities investors, therefore, lost N313.02 billion as the market capitalisation closed lower than N30 trillion market to settle at N29.92 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 25 tickers lost relative to eight gainers.
On the performance board, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and IMG topped the losers’ list having depreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively; while Chams and University Press recorded the highest gains of the day after their respective share prices added 8.7 per cent and 7.6 per cent.
Performance across the sub-sector was generally bearish, except for the NGX Oil/Gas index, which closed flat. The NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, and NGX Industrial indexes rose by 1.00 per cent, 0.36 per cent, 0.17 per cent, and 0.10 per cent, respectively. In the broad and narrow markets, the NGX Premium, NGX Mainboard, and NGX-30 indices decreased by 206 basis points, 28 basis points, and 117 basis points, respectively.
Analysis of market activities on Thursday showed that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 55.66 per cent. A total of 137.29 million shares valued at N1.51 billion were exchanged in 3,489 deals. Transnational Corporation led the volume chart with 26.09 million units traded, while Zenith Bank led the value chart in deals worth N353.89 million.