Equities investors lose N71bn as sell pressures persist on NGX

Sell pressures on stock knocked off more than N71 billion from the equities market capitalisation on Wednesday, trading details from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) trading platform revealed. The local bourse opened trading activities on negative note after the Holiday. Key performance indicators declined by 0.11% as investors booked profit. Stockbrokers expressed view investors sentiment isn’t upbeat given negative reactions to companies’ earnings release and corporate actions. Today, the market index or All-Share Index reduced by 113.48 basis points to close at 105,547.16 as sell side actors continued to exit positions across tickers.
According to information obtained from the Exchange, equities market activities went down, as the total volume and total value traded decreased by 19.99% and 44.41% respectively. In its market note, Atlass Portfolio Limited told investors that approximately 438.09 million units valued at ₦12,016.01 million were transacted across 17,286 deals. In terms of volume, FIDELITYBK led the activity chart, accounting for 9.56% of the total volume of all transactions in the market, followed by MBENEFIT (8.25%), NB (8.16%), GTCO (7.57%), and ZENITHBANK (6.56%), rounding out the top five. GTCO emerged as the most traded stock in value terms, accounting for 19.19% of the total value of trades conducted on the exchange on Wednesday.
AFRIPRUD and VFDGROUP topped the advancers’ chart for today with a price appreciation of 9.96 percent each, trailed by UNIONDICON (+9.28%), MAYBAKER (+6.17%), FIDSON (+5.26%), NAHCO (+4.48%), ROYALEX (+3.81%) and seventeen others. At the close of the trading session, thirty-three stocks depreciated. UACN was the top loser, with a price depreciation of -10.00%. Other decliners include LIVESTOCK (-8.05%), AP (-7.27%), NASCON (-6.42%), OANDO (-5.48%), and FIRSTHOLDCO (-3.02%). NGX market breadth closed negative, recording 24 gainers and 33 losers. Also, the market sectoral performance was negative. Three of the five major market sectors dipped, led by the Insurance sector which declined by 2.61%, followed by the Oil & Gas sector which dropped by 0.49%, and the Consumer goods sector fell by 0.01%. The Banking sector recorded a growth of 0.07%, while the Industrial sector closed unchanged. Overall, the equities market capitalisation lost ₦71.16 billion to close at ₦66.19 trillion.