Lagos: The All Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) witnessed a decline at the close of trading activities on Wednesday, falling by 556.37 basis points or 0.57% to settle at 96,567.24 basis points. This decline came in comparison to Tuesday’s close of 97,123.61 basis points.
According to Voice of Nigeria, the Market Capitalisation also experienced a decrease, dropping from ?58,852 trillion to ?58,515 trillion, which represents a loss of ?337.13 billion or 0.57%. The bearish trend observed today was largely due to losses in Tier-1 banking stocks, including GUARANTY TRUST HOLDING COMPANY PLC (-1.91%), ZENITH BANK PLC (-0.81%), and UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC (-9.99%).
The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.8% and +29.15%, respectively, indicating a mixed performance in recent months. An analysis of the day’s market activities revealed that trade turnover was lower compared to the previous session, with the value of transactions decreasing by 60.73% and the total volume traded dr
opping by 88.4%.
A total of 418.39 million shares valued at ?10.04 billion were exchanged in 9,021 deals. STERLING FINANCIAL HOLDINGS COMPANY PLC emerged as the most traded stock by volume with 79.65 million units, while UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC was the most traded by value at ?2.57 billion. Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative with 21 declining issues outnumbering 20 advancing ones.
UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA PLC (-9.99%), OANDO PLC (-9.98%), and THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. (-9.79%) led the list of losers. On the other hand, EUNISELL INTERLINKED PLC (+9.87%), REGENCY ASSURANCE PLC (+9.30%), and VERITAS KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC (+9.17%) recorded the highest gains of the day. Sectoral performance was varied, with the Banking (-0.9%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices falling, while the Oil and Gas (+0.8%) and Insurance (+0.5%) indices saw advances. The Industrial Goods index remained unchanged.