Massive sell-off of high cap stocks dip market to 10-year low

The Nigerian equity market further went down reinforced by the massive sell-off in high capitalised stocks, recording the largest single-day decline since falling 8.4 percent on March 19, 2010.

On Tuesday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 1,258.88 absolute points, representing a dip of 4.91 percent to close at 25,322.66 points. Similarly, the overall Market Capitalisation size shed N656.04 billion, representing a dip of 4.91 percent to close at N12.71 trillion.

Consequently, the market breadth closed negative, recording three gainers against 33 losers with Neimeth Pharmaceutical emerging top gainer while Dangote Sugar, Fidelity Bank, MTN Nigeria, Nascon and Stanbic IBTC Holdings emerging top losers.

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Thus, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -7.0 percent and -9.1 percent, respectively.

The total volume of trades increased by 220.3 percent to 594.55 million units, valued at N4.21 billion and exchanged in 4,010 deals. United Bank for Africa was the most traded stock by volume at 166.42 million units while Guaranty Trust Bank was the most traded stock by value at N1.09 billion respectively.

Sectoral performance remained negative with all sector indices recording declines. The Banking index took the biggest hit at 12.5 percent loss as investors continue to sell down on Tier I names. The Consumer Goods shed -4.4 percent, Insurance declined by -2.9 percent, Industrial Goods lost -1.1 percent and Oil & Gas depreciated by -0.9 percent.