Equities market maintains bearish stance as investors lose N17.7bn

Trading activities at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Tuesday, was unimpressive and with a bearish tilt as the benchmark index closed marginally lower by 0.02 per cent to close at 43,808.25 basis points.

Market performance was driven by the late sell-off on Wapco stocks, has depreciated in value by 9.7 per cent. Consequently, the Month-to-Date loss and Year-to-Date gain remained at -0.1 per cent and +2.6 per cent, respectively.

Consequently, the market capitalisation dipped by 0.02 per cent to N23.861 trillion, leaving investors with a N17.67 billion loss, despite the strong demand seen in the banking and consumer goods stocks.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive as 14 stocks gained relative to 13 losers. On the performance board, CWG and Learn Africa topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in share value by 10.0 per cent, respectively, while Wapco and Royal Exchange recorded the highest losses of the day after their respective share prices depreciated by 9.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively.

On the sectoral front, market performance was mixed, as the NGX Banking and NGX Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indices advanced by 0.24 per cent, 0.38 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively.
On the contrary, the NGX Insurance and NGX Industrial Goods Indices closed as the day’s decliners by 1.10 per cent and 0.65 per cent due to price declines in Wapco, Cornerstone Insurance, AIICO Insurance and Cutix.

Meanwhile, activity in the market stayed damped as total deals volume and value traded all cringed by 8.45 per cent, 44.70 per cent and 53.20 per cent to 3,045 deals, 103.47 million units valued at N1.19 billion.

Accordingly, FBNH was the most active stock by traded volumes reaching 11.39 million units worth N124.22 million changing hands in 185 deals while BUA Foods led the chart for most value at N221.59 million.

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