The Nigerian stock Market on Tuesday edged a negative performance with a loss of 0.01 per cent as investors’ sentiment remained negative.
Specifically, the All-Share Index declined by 6.14 points or 0.01 per cent to close at 42,388.57 from 42,394.71 posted on Monday.
Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date return was unchanged at 2.0 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively.
Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value lost three billion Naira or 0.01 per cent to close at N22.125 trillion from N22.128 trillion recorded on Monday.
The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; MRS Oil Nigeria, Eterna, Zenith Bank, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria and Learn Africa.
Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd said: “In the next trading session, we expect an extended bearish performance on waning investor sentiment and profit-taking.”
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive with 21 gainers against 15 losers.
Eterna led the losers’ chart by 9.91 per cent to close at N5 per share.
MRS Oil Nigeria followed with 9.85 per cent to close at N12.35, while Japaul Gold and Ventures lost 7.69 per cent to close at 36k per share.
Learn Africa declined 7.14 per cent to close at N1.17, while FTN Cocoa processors shed 4.76 per cent to close at 40k per share.
Conversely, Meyer dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.52 per cent to close at 46k per share.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance followed with 9.26 per cent to close at 59k, while CAP rose by 6.87 per cent to close at N19.45 per share.
Academy Press up by 6.38 per cent to close at 50k, while Lasaco Assurance appreciated by 5.77 per cent to close at N1.10 per share.
In all, the total volume traded increased by 94.1 per cent to 275.93 million units valued at N3.94 billion exchanged in 3,489 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 142.17 million shares worth N2.49 billion traded in 3,749 deals on Monday.
Transactions in the shares of UACN topped the activity chart with 75.880 million shares valued at N720.791 million.
FBN Holdings (FBNH) followed with 68.56 million shares worth N836.41 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 16.72 million shares valued at N133.78 million.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings traded 13.32 million shares valued at N478.72 million, while Courteville Business Solutions transacted 7.10 million shares worth N2.66 million.