Stock market declines further to N171bn, amid selloffs in Wapco Insurance, others

By Philemon Adedeji

On the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) yesterday, the bears continued to dominate the domestic bourse as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) extended losses by 148.95 basis points or 0.27 per cent to closed at 54,035.39 Index points from 54,184.34 Index points it closed for previous trading day.

The market’s weak performance was driven primarily by continued selloffs in Zenith Bank (-2.52 per cent), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) (-3.15 per cent) and,  Wapco Insurance (-0.77 per cent).

Absolutely, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return dropped to 5.43 per cent and the market capitalisation lost N171 billion to close at N29.346 trillion.

The downturn performance was impacted by price depreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks which are, Zenith Bank, GTCO, Multiverse and Mining Evaporation, Eternal Oil and others.

The breakdown of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 28.82 per cent

Yesterday, the trade volume increased by 1.5 per cent to close at 296,735,657 million shares valued at N3.066 billion were exchanged in 4,590 deals.

Fidelity Bank  led the volume chart with 46.59 million units traded, while Zenith Bank led the value chart in deals worth N373.78 million.

The market sentiments as measured by market breadth closed negative as SCOA led 14 gainers on the performance board, while Multiverse and Mining Evaporation led 20 losers on the laggards.

On the performance board, SCOA came as the most price gainer which appreciated by 10.00 per cent to close at N0.99 per share, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company rose by 9.55 per cent to close at N9.75 per share, while Linkages Assurance went up by 9.09 per cent to close at N0.48 per share.

Sunu Assurance which recorded as the last fourth gainer grew by 8.51 per cent to close at N0.51 per share, while Wapic Insurance which recorded as the last fifth gainer went up by 8.11 per cent to close at N0.40 per share

On the laggards logs, Multiverse and Mining Evaporation which led the losers chart suffered 9.88 per cent loss to close at N2.92 per share, closely followed by Eternal oil which lost 8.94 per cent to close at N5.60 per share, while Abctrans dipped by 8.82 per cent to close at N0.31 per share.

NGXGROUP which recorded as the last fourth losers depreciated by 5.45 per cent to close at N26.00 per share, while AIICO Insurance which recorded as the last fifth loser shed 5.00 per cent to close at N0.57 per share.

Transaction in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activities chart with 46.588 million shares worth N249.369 million, followed by Oando plc which transacted 33.367 million shares valued at N187.927 million, while Transnational Corporation exchanged 30.723 million shares worth N42.075 million.

AXA Mansard Insurance traded 30.134 million shares valued at N67.896 million, while United Bank of Africa sold 21.413 million shares worth N180.160 million.