The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) equity market capitalization shrank by about N38 billion as investors offloaded more stocks, leading to a dip in market sentiment. The local bourse continued its losing streak, with the All-Share Index slipping by 0.06 percent to 105,426.12 points, bringing the year-to-date return to 2.43 percent.
The main causes of today’s fall were selloffs in lending tickers, particularly ZENITHBANK (-2.25%), ACCESSCORP (-2.22%), and FIRSTHOLDCO (-2.44%). Despite releasing its record-breaking FY’24 profits, which saw its profit after tax top N1.0 trillion, ZENITHBANK saw a drop. The management of the bank also declared a final dividend of N4.00.
As anticipated, market breadth exhibited a negative trend at 0.79x, with 28 decliners outnumbering the 22 gainers. TIP (+9.85%) topped the gainers’ chart, while JOHNHOLT (-10.00%) led the decliners. Trade metrics also declined, with both volume and value traded decreasing by 92.65 percent and 97.32 percent, respectively, to settle at 423.6 million units and N9.2 billion traded.
ACCESSCORP led the volume chart with 65.0 million units traded (15.34% of total volume), while ZENITHBANK led the value charts with N2.0 billion (21.48% of total value).
TIP (+9.65%), MBENEFIT (+9.09%), UNIVINSURE (+9.09%), ROYALEX (+8.99%), and LEARNAFRICA (+8.14%) were among the top gainers. Conversely, JOHNHOLT (-10.00%), CHAMS (-8.52%), NSLTECH (-8.47%), MAYBAKER (-7.95%), and UPDC (-6.90%) led the decliners.
Trading activity was subdued, with total transaction volume and value experiencing significant declines of 92.65 percent and 97.32 percent, respectively. The number of deals also decreased by 11.39 percent, with 11,393 transactions recorded, amounting to N9.18 billion in value and 432.62 million units traded. Sectoral performances mirrored the overall bearish market sentiment.
Notably, the Banking (-0.96%), Oil and Gas (-0.35%), and Consumer Goods (-0.20%) indices closed lower, influenced by selloffs in ZENITHBANK (-2.25%), OANDO (-3.80%), and INTBREW (-1.92%), respectively.
Conversely, the Insurance (+0.09%) and Industrial Goods (+0.01%) indices benefited from price gains in SUNUASSUR (+3.17%) and CUTIX (+5.06%). The Commodity Index remained unchanged.
By the end of the session, market capitalisation had dropped by 0.06 percent to N66.11 trillion, which represented a loss of N37.5 billion in equity value.
