The Nigerian equities market began the week in the red as the All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange fell by 1.26 per cent to close at 145,159.77 points on Monday.
According to the capital market analysis by the Punch newspaper on Tuesday, the decline wiped off about N1.17tn from investors’ wealth, dragging the market capitalisation down to N92.3tn.
It stated that the downturn was driven largely by heavy sell pressure on Dangote Cement, which fell by a maximum of 10 per cent, alongside declines in tier-1 banks including Zenith Bank (-1.64 per cent), Access Holdings (-3.26 per cent), and FBN Holdings (-2.76 per cent).
It explained that despite the negative close, market breadth stood positive, with 28 gainers outperforming 24 losers. Sovereign Insurance (+9.97 per cent) led the gainers’ chart, while Dangote Cement and Enamelware, both down 10 per cent, topped the losers’ list.
Market activity normalised after last Friday’s unusually large turnover, driven by off-market crosses in Cornerstone Insurance. Total volume traded declined sharply by 92.1 per cent to 388.2 million units, while total value traded fell by 26.3 per cent to N31.1bn.
Tantalizer emerged as the most traded stock by volume with 57.1 million units, while Aradel Holdings dominated the value chart with N21.5bn worth of trades, accounting for 69 per cent of total market value. Recall that Tantalizer on Friday announced the signing of a multi-million-dollar deal with a US-based firm for a period of five years to export premium prawns and shrimps.
According to the report, trading remained largely bearish across most sectors. The Industrial Goods Index led sector declines, down 4.48 per cent, primarily due to weakness in Dangote Cement.
The Oil & Gas Index fell by 1.18 per cent with losses in Oando and Aradel, while the Banking Index dropped 1.01 per cent. The Consumer Goods Index edged down 0.02 per cent. In contrast, the Insurance Index closed positively, rising 0.07 per cent, supported by gains in Sovereign Insurance.
The report said that the Cowry Asset Management in its daily market note, attributed Monday’s downturn to profit-taking activities among investors and that the drop in market capitalisation occurred despite the listing of 1.96 billion ordinary shares of Chams Holding via private placement, underscoring the depth of the sell pressure.
GIK/APA