Nigerian equities market closes Wednesday down amidst improved volume

Bulls and bears wrangle as The Nigerian Equities Market returns to the south region to end the third trading session of the week on a negative note amidst improved turnover.

The NGXASI shed 10bps to peg the All-Share-Index at 49,576.05bps as against its previous close of 49,627.72bps. This outing dragged both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance of the All-Share Index to -0.52% and 16.06% from their previous close of -0.42% and 16.18% respectively.

Market Capitalization followed suit the direction of the ASI to stand at N26.740tn, representing a 0.10% drop from the N26.768tn it stood at the end of the previous trading session as investors’ net worth waned by N28bn in the session.

Bears’ and bears’ camps wrangled over the market breadth with 14 counters apices in both the losers’ and gainers’ charts.

REGALINS gained 8.00% to become the best-performing stock in the session. It is flanked by ABCTRANS, JAPAULGOLD, LIVESTOCK, and HONYFLOUR as they populated the top five gainers’ chart. From the rear of the chart FTNCOCOA, CHAMS, WAPIC, CUTIX, and AIICO populated the top five losers’ chart.

All sectoral indices closed in opposite direction as the ASI, save NGX OILGAS, and NGX LOTUSISLM, NGXGROWTH, and NGX ASEM sectors that did not gain weight to close flat.

MARKET ACTIVITY:

Market activity as measured by both volume and value of trades improved in the session, with daily traded volume standing at 197.458mn units, representing 23.22% uptick from a volume of 160.244mn units traded in the previous session.

Value of those traded stocks inched up by 97.76% in the session to stand at N2.943bn as against a value of N1.488bn recorded in the previous trading session.

COURTVILLE as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session. This is followed by ZENITHBANK, GTCO, CORNERST, and STERLNBANK to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

With regard to the value of the traded stocks, NESTLE took the lead of the top five performers. It is flanked by ZENITHBANK, GTCO, AIRTELAFRI, and lastly MTNN

Credit: APT Securities and Funds Limited