Equities investors’ portfolio valuation dropped by about ₦74 billion on Wednesday due to selling pressure on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) trading platform.
The year-to-date return was adjusted to 2.49 percent when the market index, also known as the All-Share Index, dropped by 0.10 percent to settle at 105,485.99 points. The local bourse had a decrease of N73.92 billion, closing at N66.14 trillion, as a result of profit-taking activities across major industry indexes today.
Despite the overall market downturn, investor sentiment remained optimistic, as indicated by a positive market breadth, according to stockbrokers. Key indicators showed a sharp decline, with data from the Nigerian bourse revealing that 30 stocks recorded gains compared to 17 stocks that experienced losses.
Trading activity was vigorous, with the total volume and value of transactions increasing substantially by 1,548.98 percent and 2,172.65 percent, respectively. However, the number of deals decreased by 12.39 percent, with 10,908 transactions recorded, totaling N352.61 billion in value and 5,760.32 million units traded.
Lafarge Africa (ticker: WAPCO) emerged as the most actively traded stock by both volume and value, with 3.53 billion units and N4.47 billion, respectively. Investors realized profits on MTNN (-2.69%) and ZENITHBANK (-1.11%), consequently reducing the market capitalization by N73.92 billion.
While MBENEFIT (+10.00%) was the top-performing counter, ABCTRANS (-9.21%) led the decliners. Elsewhere, trading metrics improved, with total volume and value traded rising to 5.76 billion units and N342.61 billion, respectively.
Sovereign Insurance Plc (ticker: SOVERNINS) topped the volume charts with 607.06 million units changing hands, while SEPLAT recorded N3.5 billion in traded value for the day. Notable gainers included MBENEFIT (+10.00%), ROYALEX (+9.88%), NEM (+9.84%), LASACO (+9.56%), and ETRANZACT (+9.52%).
Conversely, UHOMREIT (-9.93%), ABCTRANS (-9.80%), UNIVINSURE (-8.33%), DAARCOMM (-6.45%), and CHAMPION (-5.00%) led the decliners. Despite the general bearish trend in the market, sectoral performance was predominantly bullish.
Specifically, the Insurance (+2.64%), Consumer Goods (+0.35%), Banking (+0.13%), and Oil & Gas (+0.03%) indices saw increases, driven by buying interest in NEM (+9.84%), NESTLE (+2.56%), GTCO (+1.99%), and ETERNA (+3.91%), respectively.
The indices for commodities and industrial goods, meanwhile, did not change.
