Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba, Lagos
In the last trading session of the week, the Nigerian equities maintained the bearish trend as the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.05 per cent to close at 52,994.13 basis points.
Having lost in all trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 2.61 per cent lower Week-on-Week (WoW).
Over the course of the week, Airtel Africa, Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company were the major drags on the broader index as the respective shares prices of these companies dipped by 10.0 per cent, 1.35 per cent and 4.31 per cent, WoW.
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 3.40 per cent.
Equities investors, therefore, lost N674.53 billion over the four-days trading sessions as the market capitalization settled at N28.87 trillion on Thursday.
Performance across sub-indices was negative, with the NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil/Gas, and NGX Industrial indices moderating by 0.17 per cent, 0.17 per cent, and 0.04 per cent, respectively. However, the NGX Banking and NGX Insurance Indexes rose by 0.08 per cent and 0.10 per cent, respectively.
In the broad and narrow markets, the NGX Premium index gained four basis points, while the NGX Mainboard and NGX-30 indexes decreased further by 11 and five basis points, respectively.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 27.88 per cent. A total of 266.95 million shares valued at N1.93 billion were exchanged in 3,651 deals. Transnational Corporation led the volume chart with 147.15 million units traded, while Zenith Bank led the value chart in deals worth N487.11 million.
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