Nigerian stocks fell on Wednesday as price losses recorded by Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and 21 other companies led to a decline of N190bn in total market value.
The All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange Limited fell by 0.92 per cent to 39,433.81 basis points at the end of trading, while the market capitalisation dropped to N20.63tn on Wednesday from N20.83tn on Tuesday.
A total of 349.56 million shares valued at N3.50bn were traded by investors in 4,554 deals on Wednesday.
Stanbic IBTC, which led the losers, saw its share price drop by 10 per cent to close at N45.
It was followed by CWG Plc, which fell by 9.61 per cent to N2.07 per share.
Unilever Nigeria Plc lost 8.21 per cent to close at N12.30 per share; Courteville Business Solutions Plc dipped by eight per cent to N0.23 per share, while International Breweries Plc dropped by 7.02 per cent to N5.30 per share.
Eighteen companies recorded price appreciation at the end of trading on Wednesday, with LASACO Assurance Plc leading the park as its share price rose by 9.62 per cent to N1.71.
Linkage Assurance Plc gained 9.43 per cent to close at N0.58 per share, while Caverton Offshore Support Group appreciated by 9.09 per cent to N1.92 per share.
Sterling Bank Plc increased by 8.11 per cent to N1.60 per share, while Regency Alliance Insurance Company Plc was up 6.67 per cent to N0.32 per share.
Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited noted that the domestic equities market extended its losses from Tuesday’s session, saying, “This performance was primarily driven by losses in MTNN (-2.4 per cent) and STANBIC (-10.0 per cent).”
According to them, the month-to-date and year-to-date losses increased to 0.9 per cent and -2.0 per cent, respectively.
“On sectors, performance was broadly negative as all indices in our coverage – banking (-1.7 per cent), consumer goods (-0.5 per cent), oil and gas (-0.2 per cent), insurance (-0.1 per cent) – save for the industrial goods (+0.3 per cent), which declined,” the analysts said.
