Nigerian bourse opens the week’s trade with N13bn loss

The Nigerian bourse began the week transaction on a losing note on Monday as the Market Capitalisation recorded a loss N13.06 billion to close the day trading at N26.614 trillion as against N26.628 trillion it started the day with.

The negative performance was majorly driven by selloffs in banking stocks such as United Bank for Africa (UBA), Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO)

As a result of this, the All-Share Index dropped by 0.05 per cent to close at 49,344.67 per cent from 49,370.62 which it opened, even as the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 15.52 per cent.

Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 19.97 per cent.

However, market breadth closed negative as 18 stocks were on the laggard’s chart while eight were on the gainers’ chat.

Courtville Business solutions led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.09 per cent to close at 48k per share.

Honeywell Flour Mill followed with a gain of 8.68 per cent to close at N2.63, while Mutual Benefits Assurance rose by eight per cent to close at 27k per share and MEN Insurance also went up by 4.71 per cent each to close at N4 per share.

Champion Breweries also went up by 2.90 per cent each to close at N3.90 per share.

FTNCocoa, on the other hand, led the losers’ chart by 9.09 per cent to close at 30k per share. LASACO shed 8.65 per cent to close at 95k per share. WAPIC also lost 7.32 per cent to close at 38k per share, while ETI lost 5.66 per cent to close at N10 per share.

NGX Group declined by 4.62 per cent to close at N19.60 per share.

A total of 122.74 million shares valued at N1.30 billion were exchanged in 3,915 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Mutual Benefits Assurance topped the most volume chart with 8.58 million shares valued at N9.71 million.

Transcorp followed with 9.23 million shares worth N9.23 million, while GTCO  traded 8.58 million shares valued at N173.74 million. Sterling Bank sold 7.94 million shares worth N11.91 million.

Access Bank Holdings traded 7.87 million shares valued at N65.42 million.