Nigeria's local stock market slips further by 2.26% as ASI settles below 50,000bps

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Bears maintained grips of activities at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) to extend negative outing into the second trading of the week.

On Tuesday, the market’s weak performance was driven primarily by selloffs in index heavyweights, Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria as they lost 9.05 per cent and 4.29 per cent from their respective share values.

The All Share Index (ASI), thus, dipped further to 49,350.71 basis points as against its previous close of 50,489.73bps.

This outing pegged both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance at -2.02 per cent and 15.53 per cent from their previous close of 0.24 per cent and 18.20 per cent respectively.

Market capitalisation followed suit the direction of the ASI to stand at N26.619 trillion, representing a 2.26 per cent drop from the N27.233 trillion it stood at the end of the previous trading session, as investors’ net worth waned by N614 billion in the session.

Bears’ camp took dominance over the market breadth with 16 counters in the losers’ chart pitted against 12 counters in the gainers’ chart.

NEM gained 10.00 per cent to become the best performing stock in the session, flanked by Preatige Insurance, Ellah Lakes, Multiverse and Ikeja Hotel as they populated the top five gainers’ chart. From the rear of the chart, Cornerstone, Dangote Cement, Japaul Gold, Sovereign Insurance and Stanbic populated the top five losers’ chart.

Key sectoral indices closed in the same direction as the ASI, save for NGX Banking and NGX Insurance sectors that gained 0.60 per cent and 0.24 per cent respectively, while NGX Growth and NGX ASEM sectors closed flat.

Market activity as measured by both volume and value of trades waned in the session, with daily traded volume standing at 140.610 million units, representing a 32.14 per cent downtick from a volume of 207.196 million units traded in the previous session.

The value of those traded stocks inched dipped by 24.50 per cent in the session to stand at N1.600 billion as against a value of N2.119 billion recorded in the previous trading session.

Japaul Gold dominated the volume charts as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session. This is followed by AIICO Insurance, Sterling Bank, Sovereign Insurance and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

With regard to the value of traded stocks, Seplat Energies took the lead among the top five performers. It was flanked by MTN Nigeria, GTCO, Zenith Bank and Dangote Cement.