Nigerian Equities Index Slips as Market Cap Sheds N192bn

The Nigerian equities market Thursday reversed some gains of its Wednesday’s session, as the market index declined by 0.49 per cent, while the market capitalisation shed N191.92billion to close at N39.10trillion.

Specifically, the local equities ended lower yesterday with the benchmark index losing before closing at 71,457.92 points.

This is due to selloffs in Tier 1 banks namely, ZENITHBANK, GTCO and UBA which outweighed gains in Nigeria Brewery, INTERBREW and STERLINGNG, putting the market in the red.

Although, despite the decline, the market is on track for another week of gain, consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 39.43 per cent.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 15.64 per cent.

A total of 436.56m shares valued at N7.55billion were exchanged in 7,096 deals. UNIVINSURE led the volume chart with 52.73million units traded while NB led the value chart in deals worth N1.39 billion.

Market breadth closed negative at a 1.23-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. FBNH topped 26 others on the laggard’s table while MULTIVERSE (+9.91%) led 21 others on the leader’s log.