Nigerian bourse sheds N17bn as bears fight back

Performance indicators on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) went back  to the red zone at the close of trading session on Wednesday, reversing gains of Tuesday.

The All-Share Index lost 12 basis points dropping Year-to-Date (YTD) return at 6.57 per cent, just as market capitalisation lost N17 billion to close the day trading at N14.72 trillion.

Although, the market breadth  had 25 advancers in contrast to 24 losers, with Sectorial indices closed in the mix with the Oil and Gas taking the lead owing to bargain hunting in Seplat while Industry took lead from the rear owing to share price drop in WAPCO and Dangote Cement.

A total of 351 million shares were traded as against previous close of 246 million units amounting to 42.34 per cent increase and value also increased by 42.93 per cent from N3.22 billion to N4.60 billion on Wednesday.

FBN Holdings, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank and Flour Mill of Nigeria end the trading day as top performers in terms of volume while FBN Holdings, United Bank for Africa, Flour Mill of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank and Access Bank made up the top five performers in terms of the value of units traded.