Equities market continued a southward movement on Friday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index moderated by 0.18 per cent to close at 41,709.09 points amid sell-offs on large capitalised stocks.
The market capitalisation also fell by 0.18 per cent to close at N21.82tn after investors lost N40.07bn at the end of the day’s trading session.
Hence, the Year-to-Date gain of the ASI moderated to 3.57 per cent, even as the domestic bourse printed 37 losers and 14 gainers.
Analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited noted that the 362-day Open Market Operation bills auctioned on Thursday closed at 10.10 per cent, which poses a signal to investors about yields reversing upwards, hence continued sell-off in the equities space.
Specifically, blue-chip stocks such as Lafarge Africa Plc, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Zenith Bank Plc moderated by 3.62 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 2.80 per cent respectively.
Four of the five indices tracked (insurance, consumer goods, oil and gas and industrial) fell in the red.
However, the NSE banking index rose by 1.36 per cent.
Meanwhile, activity in the market was weak as, total volume and value of stocks traded declined.
The total volume of trades fell by 23.39 per cent to 482.18 million units valued at N5.5bn and exchanged in 5,998 deals.
