Bearish sentiment continued on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday, causing the total market capitalisation to drop to the N19tn mark after opening the day’s trading session at N20.04tn and closing at N19.98tn.
The All-Share Index also moderated by 0.30 per cent to close at 38,328.13 points, as investors lost N69.77bn to the persisting bearish activity.
Of the total companies’ stocks traded, 19 fell against 18 that appreciated, even as the year-to-date loss of the ASI rose to -4.86 per cent.
Both mid and large capitalised stocks such as Dangote Cement, Unilever Nigeria, Access Bank and United Bank for Africa suffered losses, as their respective share prices declined by 1.87 per cent, 3.17 per cent, 1.19 per cent and 1.36 per cent.
Three of the five indices tracked closed in the green territory as sectoral performance further weakened.
While the insurance, consumer goods and oil and gas indices rose by 0.35 per cent, 0.39 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively, the banking and industrial indices fell by 0.11 per cent and 0.89 per cent.
Trading activity was weak as total deals, volume and value of stock traded closed in the red zone.
At the close of the day’s trading, the total volume of stocks stood at 157.26 million units, valued at N1.74bn and deals at 2,824.
