Equity investors lost N130bn as the Nigerian Exchange reversed the previous day’s gain on Thursday.
The All Share Index declined by 0.23 per cent to settle at 98,003.75 points from 98,230.92 points.
The market capitalisation closed at N56.32tn, down from the previous day’s N56.45tn, as investors traded 473,091,884 units of shares in 9,848 deals valued at N11.349bn.
This was a 26 per cent improvement in trade volume compared to Wednesday when 361,302,533 shares were traded in 9,627 deals valued at N7.567bn.
Despite the higher volume of trades, there was a 14 per cent decline in turnover and a marginal two per cent improvement in the number of deals.
On the gainers’ list, McNichols led with a 10 per cent increase, closing at N1.65, followed by Associated Bus Company with a 10 per cent rise to N0.99.
Other top gainers included University Press Ltd, which gained 9.95 per cent to close at N2.43, and Fidson Healthcare with a 9.85 per cent increase to N14.50 per share.
However, the losers’ table had Honeywell Flour Mill topping the list with a 9.98 per cent loss, closing at N4.87, followed by FBN Holdings, which dropped 9.88 per cent to N30.55.
UPDC fell by 9.74 per cent to N1.76, while Tantalizers recorded an 8.82 per cent decline to N0.62.
Japaul Gold and Ventures recorded the highest volume of traded shares with 107 million units, followed by UAC of Nigeria with 57.9 million shares, Fidelity Bank (48.7 million), and Honeywell Flour Mill (26.1 million).
Performance across our sectors was broadly negative, as five indices experienced losses, while the AFRICT index remained unchanged.
The banking and insurance indices led the underperformers, dipping by 0.6 per cent due to price declines in Stanbic IBTC Holdings (-3.5 per cent), Cornerstone Insurance Company (-1.6 per cent), and AXA Mansard Insurance (-2.31 per cent).
Similarly, the consumer goods index was down by 0.3 per cent as a result of selling pressure on stocks like Honeywell Flour Mill (-10.0 per cent) and Dangote Sugar Refinery (-10.9 per cent).
The oil & gas and industrial goods sectors dropped by 0.1 per cent each, influenced by price depreciations in OANDO (-4.89 per cent) and Lafarge Wapco (-12.8 per cent).
Analysts at Afrinvest believed that with the market showing signs of weakness and cautious trading expected ahead of the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee decision, there would be a relatively subdued trading session tomorrow.
“Tomorrow, we expect the market to be mildly quiet as investors trade cautiously ahead of the upcoming MPC decision,” they noted.
