The local stock market ended the day on a bearish note, extending previous day’s loss as sell pressures on Oando, United Bank for Africa, and First Bank for Africa drove the All-Share Index lower by 0.1 per cent to close at 97,487.14 basis points leaving these high capitalised stocks with 3.5 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respective dip in value.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed -1.1 per cent and +30.4 per cent, respectively.
This decline translated to a 0.10 per cent drop in market capitalisation, closing at N56.02 trillion, and resulting in a N56.1 billion loss for investors due to sell-offs.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 37 tickers lost relative to 15 gainers.
On the performance board, the top gainers included Lasaco Assurance, Mecure Industries, Julius Berger, Regal Insurance, and Golden Guinea Breweries, as their share prices appreciated by 10.00 percent, 9.47 percent, 9.33 per cent, 9.09 percent, and 7.94 percent, respectively.
On the downside, Ellah Lakes, Associated Bus Company, Eternal, C&I Leasing, and Livestock Feeds were among the top losers after 9.84 percent, 9.63 percent, 8.52 percent, 8.40 percent, and 8.02 percent, respectively.
Sectoral performance was predominantly negative, with the banking sector down 0.67 percent, insurance down 0.22 per cent, oil/gas down 0.48 percent, and industrial goods marginally lower by 0.01 percent.
However, the consumer goods sector saw a slight uptick of 0.31 per cent.
The overall bearish trend subdued trading activity on Wednesday, with the number of deals, volume, and value declining by 9.04 percent, 50.48 percent, and 16.65 percent, respectively.
A total of 356.13 million shares were traded across 8,582 deals, valued at N6.95 billion.
Fidelity Bank was the most traded stock by volume, with 66.2 million units worth N988.1 million exchanged across 279 deals, while United Bank for Africa was the most traded in terms of value.
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