Bears returned to the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited to start the week’s trading session. The market had closed positive on Friday after recording three straight sessions of consecutive gains.
Opening the market on a negative note, the Nigerian stock market’s All-Share Index moderated by 0.27 per cent to close at 38,545.30 points.
Amid renewed profit-hunting activity, the market capitalisation also dropped to N20.09tn, resulting in a N54bn loss by investors.
At the close of the day’s trading session, the gainers and losers’ table almost tied, as 18 companies’ stocks appreciated against 17 companies’ stocks that declined.
The year-to-date loss of the ASI, however, rose to -4.28 per cent against what it closed in the previous week.
Sell pressure on small and medium cap tickers such as Fidson Healthcare, Lasaco Assurance, Ecobank Transnational Incorporation, Oando and FCMB Group lowered their respective share prices by 9.80 per cent, 9.33 per cent, 0.96 per cent, 1.68 per cent and 1.25 per cent.
Sectoral performance was weak as three out of the five indices tracked closed in the red.
The insurance, oil and gas and industrial indices declined by 1.13 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively, while the banking and consumer goods indexes rose by 0.11 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.
Trading activity was weak as total volume and value of stock traded fell, hence, the volume of stocks declined by 5.18 per cent to 209.21 million units, valued at N1.76bn in 3,390 deals.
