Business

NGX: Losses in banking stocks dips ASI by 0.2%

On Tuesday, the bears dominated the domestic bourse as the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) slipped by 0.17 per cent to settle at 66,984.62 basis points.

The market’s weak performance was primarily driven by selloffs in Tier-1 Banking Names, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Access Holdings leading to 0.47 per cent, 0.70 per cent and 1.25 per cent depreciation in their respective share prices.

Consequently, the MTD and YTD returns moderated to +0.9 per cent and +30.7 per cent, respectively.

Owing to the bearish trading session, equities investors, therefore, lost N64.12 billion from their overall investment as the market capitalisation settled lower at N36.80 trillion by the end of trading activities at the local bourse.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 13 tickers lost relative to 27 gainers. On the performance board, John Holt and Presco topped the losers’ list after their respective share prices dipped by 10.0 per cent and 9.5 per cent, while MC Nicholas and Capital Hotel recorded the most significant gains of the day after their share prices inclined by 10.0 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively.

In terms of sectoral performance, it was largely bearish as three out of five indexes closed negative. The Industrial Goods and Oil/Gas sectors closed flat, while the Banking, Insurance and Consumer Goods sectors closed southward by 1.11 per cent, 0.71 per cent and 0.11 per cent respectively.

On Tuesday, the level of market activity was varied as the total number of traded volumes fell by 4.18 per cent to 257.4 million units, while the total trades for the day plummeted by 5.98 per cent to 6,498 deals. Conversely, traded value stood at N7.8 billion indicating an increase of 125.2 per cent.

At the end of the session, Fidelity Bank was the most traded security by volume at 53.39 million units valued at N442.89 million in 297 trades.

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