Bears gained control of the stock market on Wednesday and Thursday, causing investors to lose N1.58 trillion in two days. The local stock market’s five-day winning streak was broken on Wednesday when sale pressure caused the market capitalization to lose N882 billion.
The local stock market’s entire capitalization suffered a second straight loss yesterday, falling by N707 billion, as the bears remained in control.
The All-Share Index (ASI) fell 1,297.99 points, or 2.03%, to settle at 62,748.94 points. Furthermore, market capitalization fell by N707 billion to N34.167 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment closed negative, as 19 stocks gained relative to 57 losers. John Holt emerged as the highest price gainer of 10 percent to close at N1.65 per share. Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a gain of 9.94 per cent to close at N29.85, while NASCON Allied Indpercentadvanced by 9.91 percent to close at N25.50 per share.
Skyway Aviation Handling Company increased by 9.80 per cent to close at N13.45, while Golden Guinea Breweries added 9.74 per cent to close at N2.93 per share.
On the other side, Fidelity Bank, Omatek Ventures, Sovereign Trust Insurance, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Wema Bank and Transcorp Hotel led others on the losers’ chart with 10 percent each to close at N7.11, 54 kobo, 50 kobo, N61.20, N4.50 and N35.55 in that order, per share. Unity Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) followed with a decline of 9.94 percent each to close at N1.54 and N14.05, respectively, while Learn Africa shed 9.93 percent to close at N3.81 per share.
Also, the total volume traded decreased by 31.36 per cent to 798.467 million units, valued at N10.449 billion, and exchanged in 10,296 deals. Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa led the activity with 99.016 billion shares worth N1.331 billion, FBN Holdings (FBNH) followed with an account of 72.688 million shares valued at N1.284 billion, while Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) traded 68.797 million shares valued at N280.804 million.
FCMB Group traded 67.892 million shares worth N415.893 million, while GTCO traded 51.243 million shares worth N1.771 billion.
cc: Leadership Ng
