Business

Equities market reverses bullish trend as investors lose N70bn

On Tuesday, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed on a bearish note to reverse previous gain, with the All Share Index (ASI) dropping by 0.12 percent to settle at 97,584.81 basis points.

This decline led to a 0.12 percent decrease in market capitalisation, closing at N56.08 trillion, resulting in a N70 billion loss for investors due to sell-offs.

Despite the negative sentiment, market breadth was positive as 26 stocks gained while 29 stocks declined.

On the performance board, the top gainers included Regal Insurance, PZ Cussons Nigeria, Cutix, Deap Capital Management & Trust and The Initiates as their share prices advanced by 10.00 percent, +8.78 percent, 5.60 percent, 5.59 percent, and 5.26 percent.

On the losing side, major decliners were Guinness Breweries, African Prudential, International Breweries, CWG, and UPDC after their share value declined by 10.00 percent, 9.86 percent, 9.07 per cent, 6.98 per cent, and 5.95 percent.

Sectoral performance was mostly positive, with the insurance sector up 0.86 per cent, the oil/gas sector rising 1.98 per cent, and the industrial goods sector up 0.01 percent .

However, the insurance and consumer goods sectors declined by 0.50 percent and 1.73 percent, respectively.

Due to the overall bearish trend, trading activity was subdued, with the number of deals and volume down by 9.49 percent and 45.05 percent, respectively, with 719.11 million shares traded across 9,435 deals.

Despite this, trading value surged by 39.92 percent to N8.34 million. Wapic Insurance was the most traded stock by volume, with 402.3 million units worth N321.8 million exchanged in 28 deals.

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