The Nigerian equities market, yesterday, shed 0.40 per cent to kick off the week.
The All-Share Index (ASI) shed 101.38 absolute points, representing a dip of 0.40 per cent to close at 25,136.63 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N35 billion, representing a decline of 0.40% to close at N8.699 trillion.
The downturn was significantly impacted by value depreciation recorded in some medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Forte Oil, Mobil Oil, Stanbic-IBTC, Oando and Dangote Cement.
Stock market analysts noted, “We expect market performance to be broadly determined by short term speculative trading as the weaker macro-economic fundamentals continue to weigh on sentiment.”
For the second trading session in a row, market breadth closed at a flat position with 12 gainers and losers apiece. United Capital recorded the highest price gain of 6.20 per cent, to close at N2.57 per share. Union Bank followed with a gain of 4.93 per cent to close at N4.90, while ETI gained by 4.69 per cent to close at N10.50 per share.
Mansard Insurance went up by 4.64 per cent to close at 1.58, while UACN appreciated by 4.09 per cent to close at N13.37 per share.
On the other hand, Forte Oil led the losers’ chart by 4.99 per cent, to close at N49.09, per share, Livestock followed with a decline of 4.48 per cent to close at 64 kobo, while NEM Insurance shed 4.40 per cent to close at 87 kobo per share.
Sterling Bank depreciated by 4.11 per cent to close at 70 kobo and Aiico Insurance declined by 3.39 per cent to close at 57 kobo per share.
Also, the total volume traded declined by 44.82 per cent to 135.40 million shares, valued at N681.16 million, and traded in 2,909 deals. Transactions in the shares of Diamond Bank topped the activity chart with 50.54 million shares valued at N40.97 million. FBN Holdings followed with 12.2 million shares worth N39.67 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 9.58 million shares valued at N7.84 million.
Access Bank traded 8.43 million shares worth N56.65 million, while Zenith Bank sold 7.24 million shared valued N95.28 million.
