Investors lose $199mln as Nigerian stock market opens weaker by 0.3%

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Trading activities at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) started the week on a negative note, as profit-taking witnessed in Wapco and MTN Nigeria caused a 0.3 per cent decline in the benchmark index.

Basically, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Exchange dipped by 0.29 per cent to stand at 52,944.65 basis points as against a previous close of 52,100.21 basis points.

This brought both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance of the All-Share Index at 6.66 per cent and 23.94 per cent respectively.

Therefore, investors lost N83 billion in their net worth as the market capitalisation followed suit the direction of the ASI to stand at N28.543 trillion, representing a 0.29 per cent drop from the N28.626 trillion it stood at the end of the previous trading session.

However, the bulls’ camp continued to dominate the market breadth with 27 counters in thegainers’ chart pitted against 20 counters in the losers’ chart.

On the performance chart, MC Nicholas gained 9.95 per cent to become the best performing stock in the session, flanked by Northern Nigeria NFlour Mills, Transcorp, Wapic Insurance and CHI Plc as they populated the top five gainers’ chart. From the rear of the chart Champion Breweries, GlaxoSmithKline, International Breweries, Neimeth and Wapco populated the top five losers’ chart.

Most sectoral indices closed in the same direction as the ASI, save for NGX Insurance, NGX Oil&Gas and NGX Growth sectors that gained 2.41 per cent, 0.60 per cent, and 0.50 per cent respectively, while the NGX ASEM sector closed flat.

Market activity as measured by both volume and value of trades gained weight at the end of the trading session as the daily traded volume stood at 23.30 million units, representing a 23.30 per cent uptick from a volume of 303.485 million units traded in the previous session.

The value of those traded stocks inched up by 38.85 per cent in the session to stand at N374.184 billion as against a value of N3.575 billion recorded in the previous trading session.

Transcorp dominated the volume charts as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session. This is followed by Jaiz Bank, Access Holdings, International Breweries and Ikeja Hotel to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

With regards to the value of traded stocks, Seplat took the lead among the top fiveperformers. It is flanked by MTN Nigeria, Access Holdings, Airtel Africa and lastlyGuaranty Trust Holding Company.