The Nigerian equities market experienced a bearish session on Thursday, with negative sentiment leading to selling pressure across some sectors.
Consequently, the All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) settled lower 0.49 percent to 71,457.92 basis points, erasing the gains from the previous day.
Notable sell-offs in key stocks like FBN Holdings, Access Holdings, Jaiz Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and United Bank for Africa contributed to this downturn, resulting in a 0.49 percent decrease in the market cap of listed equities to N39.10 trillion.
Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +0.1 percent and +39.4 percent, respectively.
The market capitalisation settled at N39.10 trillion by the end of the day’s trading activities, leaving equities investors with a cumulative loss of N191.92 billion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 28 tickers lost relative to 23 gainers.
Among the gainers were Multiverse Mining and Exploration, SCOA Nigeria, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank and The Initiates, which attracted buying interest amid the prevailing negative sentiment.
On the downside, FBN Holdings, Secured Electronics and Access Holdings experienced adverse price movements, leading the laggards for the day.
Investor sentiment appeared mixed across sectors, with negative performances in the Banking and Industrial indexes, which declined by 2.01 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively. This was attributed to pressured sell-offs in tier-1 banks and Lafarge Africa.
Conversely, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indexes closed mildly positive by 1.83 percent and 0.03 per cent, influenced by renewed sentiment in the sector, while the Oil and Gas index remained muted.
Trading activity on the NGX witnessed a significant decline, with traded volume falling by 36.73 percent to 436.56 million units. The total traded value also saw a substantial decrease of 37.62 percent, reaching N7.55 billion, while the total number of deals declined by 15.64 percent to 7,096 deals.
The most traded security by volume was Universal Insurance, reaching 52.725 million units in 87 trades, while Nigerian Breweries emerged as the most traded security by value on Thursday, worth N1.39 billion.
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