The Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation on Wednesday shed N130 billion in about six hours of trading.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N13.420 trillion lost N130 billion or 0.97 per cent to close at N13.290 trillion. In the same vein, the All-Share Index dipped 267.15 points or 0.97 per cent to 27,319.64 compared with 27,586.79 achieved on Tuesday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are Nestle Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Forte Oil and MTN Nigeria.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said that “Given the weak state of the economy, our bearish outlook on the equities market remain unchanged.”
Market breadth closed negative, with 10 gainers against 18 losers. Guinness dominated the losers’ chart with a loss of 9.90 per cent to close at N37.30per share. Ikeja Hotel followed with a decline of 9.79 per cent to close at N1.29, while Forte Oil declined by 9.73 to close at N14.85 per share.
UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust lost 9.26 per cent to close at N4.90, while Eterna shed 5.36 per cent to close at N2.65per share. Conversely, UACN recorded the highest price gain of 9.89 per cent, to close at N5 per share.
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UACN Property Development Company followed with a gain 9.76 per cent to close at 90k, while Africa Prudential appreciated by 8.82 per cent to close at N3.95 per share. Linkage Assurance went up by 8.33 per cent to close at 52k, while International Breweries appreciated by 8.18 per cent to close at N11.90 per share.
The total volume traded fell by 14.93 per cent as investors bought and sold 250.45 million shares valued at N3.19 billion in 3,219 deals.This was in contrast with a turnover of 294.41 million shares worth N3.49 billion traded in 3,337 deals, on Tuesday. Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 81.85 million shares valued at N542.31 million.
Lafarge Africa followed with a total of 40.65 million shares worth N587.39 million, while Zenith Bank sold 27.50 million shares valued at N481.48 million.
FBN Holdings accounted for 19.28 million shares worth N89.54 million, while Transcorp transacted 13.71 million shares valued at N14.07 million.
Samson Oyedeyi
