By Philemon Adedeji
As the week opened on Monday, Nigerian equities market closed on a negative performance, as the All-Share Index dipped by 150.63 basis points or 0.30 per cent to close at 43,818.12 points from 43,968.75 points it closed week on Friday. Selloffs in MTNN (-2.40 per cent) offset gains in Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) (+0.85 per cent), First Bank Holding of Nigeria (+2.44 per cent) and Accesscorp plc (+1.24 per cent) to drive the market’s weak performance. As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 2.63 per cent, and the market capitalisation shed N79 billion to close at N23.866 trillion from N23.945 trillion it closed the week on Friday.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 17.05 per cent.
A total of 187.09 million shares valued at N2.54 billion were exchanged in 3,326deals. Accesscorp led the volume chart with 87.92 million units traded while MTNN led the value chart in deals worth N764.37 million.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.33-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. FTNCOCOA processor led eleven others on the gainer’s table, while Johnholt led eight others on the losers chart.
FTNcocoa processor came as the highest gainer on the leaders table with 9.68 per cent to close at N0.34 per share Followed by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance which appreciated by 6.90 per cent to close at N0.62 per share while Masard insurance rose 5.88 per cent to close at N1.62 per share
Chams Plc went up by 4.17 per cent to close at N0.25 per share and Union Bank of Nigeria grew by 3.48 per cent to close at N5.95 per share.
Johnholt emerged as the highest price loser on the laggards table with 9.88 per cent to close at N0.73 per share, followed by SCOA which lost 9.71 per cent to close at N1.58 per share while Prestige Assurance dropped by 7.69 per cent to close at N0.36 per share.
Unity Bank which recorded as the last fourth loser dipped by 5.26 per cent to close at N0.54 per share.
Afriprud which recorded as the last fifth loser depreciated by 4.67 per cent to close at N5.10 per share.
Transaction in the shares of Accesscorp plc topped the activities chart with 87.923 million shares valued at N704.474 million, followed by Zenith Bank which transacted 19.323 million shares worth N385.788 million while Transcorp Plc traded 10.679 million shares valued at N11.613 million.
Unity Bank sold 10.175 million shares worth N5.339 million.
NGXGROUP transacted 5.255 million shares worth N112.846 million.