Nigerian equities market opens week in red as investors lose ₦275bn

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) commenced the trading week on a bearish note, with the equity segment recording a loss of ₦275.14 billion on Monday.

The downturn reflected a broader sell-off that pulled the market capitalization down to ₦128.69 trillion.

The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.21%, closing at 200,484.43 points.

This negative performance retracted the year-to-date return to +28.84%, as investors adjusted their portfolios amidst shifting market sentiments.

Trading activity during the session presented a mixed outlook. While the total volume of shares traded edged down marginally by 0.32% to 593.25 million units, the total value of transactions rose by 4.83% to ₦25.65 billion.

Market participation remained high, with the deal count surging by 38.84% to 60,311 transactions.

Market breadth closed negative at 0.8x, as 34 decliners outweighed 26 gainers. The downward trend was led by notable losses in stocks such as NSLTECH, MAYBAKER, LEGENDINT, CUTIX, and FTGINSURE.

Conversely, top performers for the day included AUSTINLAZ, ZICHIS, TRANSEXPR, TIP, and LEARNAFRICA, which posted the most significant gains.

Sectoral performance was largely subdued, with the Insurance sector leading the decline at -1.38%.

The Banking, Industrial, and Consumer Goods sectors followed suit, dropping by 0.81%, 0.45%, and 0.01%, respectively.

The Oil & Gas sector however emerged as the sole gainer of the day, rising by 0.10%, while the Commodity sector remained flat.