The stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) witnessed a continued downturn on Thursday, with market capitalisation dropping by N252 billion.
Specifically, the market capitalisation closed at N58.653 trillion, as against N58.905 trillion posted on Wednesday, representing a 0.43 per cent decrease.
Similarly, the All-Share Index also fell by 445.24 points or 0.43 per cent, closing at 103,736.08 points from 104,181.32 recorded on Wednesday.
This decline pushed the Year-To-Date (YTD) return down to 38.73 per cent.
Bearish sentiment affected key stocks such as MTN Nigeria and Tier-one banks, namely; Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank, Access Corporation, Transcorp and United Capital Plc, among others dragging the market into negative territory.
The market breadth closed negative with 26 losers and 23 gainers.
On the losers’ table, C&I Leasing Plc led by 9.79 per cent to close at N3.50, Mutual Benefits Assurance trailed by 8.57 per cent to close at 64k per share.
Tantalizers lost 7.89 per cent to close at 35k, Unity Bank dropped 7.39 per cent to close at N2.13 and Jaiz Bank declined by 7.23 per cent to close at N2.18 per share.
Conversely, Morison Industries Plc led the gainers’ table by 9.84 per cent to close at N2.12, SCOA Nigeria Plc rose by 9.77 per cent to close at N2.36 per share.
International Energy Insurance gained 9.72 per cent to close at N1.58, NEM Insurance advanced by 9.50 per cent to close at N9.80 and The Initiative Plc added 8.70 per cent to close at N2.50 per share.
However, analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 75.57 per cent.
A total of 487.73 million shares valued at N15.64 billion were exchanged in 8,908 deals, compared to 405.03 million shares valued at N8.91 billion exchanged in 10,364 deals posted in the previous session.
Zenith Bank led the activity chart in volume and value with 161.68 million shares traded in value of N7.03 billion, followed by GTCO with 54.36 million shares worth N2.73 billion.
UBA sold 47.82 million shares worth N1.30 billion, Access Corporation traded 40.88 million shares valued at N950.44 million and Transcorp sold 28.35 million shares worth N387.01 million.
