Bears maintained grip on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Wednesday, as the All-Share Index further moderated by 1.48 per cent to close at 38,445.09 basis points.
The negative sentiment saw the market capitalisation drop to N20.034tn after opening the day’s trading at N20.34tn
At the close of trading, investors lost N300.96bn, even as 25 stocks declined against 23 stocks that gained, while the year-to-date loss of the ASI rose to -4.5 per cent.
The oil and gas index increased by 7.1 per cent buoyed by buy pressure on SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company whose share rose as high as 10 per cent.
The gain was, however, offset by sell pressure on large capitalised stocks such as Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement and Zenith Bank whose share prices fell by 10 per cent, 0.47 per cent and 2.13 per cent respectively.
Sectoral performance remained weak, as three of the remaining sub-sector indices closed in the red territory, save the industrial Index, which rose by 0.85 per cent.
The banking, insurance and consumer goods indices fell by 0.62 per cent, 0.61 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively.
Trading activity was also mixed, as total deal and volume of stocks fell, while total value traded north.
At the close of the day’s trading, the total volume of stocks fell by 24.92 per cent to 153.64 million units valued at N2.45bn in 3,494 deals.
