Equities market sees highest daily loss in Nigeria’s protest week

Nigeria’s equities market opened the new month in red, as it on Thursday recorded the highest daily decline in the protest week.

For the fourth consecutive day, the market decreased by 0.42 percent at the close of trading session.

Aggrieved Nigerian youths on Thursday, August 1 took to the streets across major cities of Africa’s most populous nation in line with their planned 10-day protest against bad governance and hunger.

“Due to the proposed nationwide protest tomorrow (ie Thursday), this is to inform you that all our offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja will be closed on Thursday August 1, 2024.

“We will closely monitor the situation and provide further communication depending on the developments of the protest,” Lagos-based Meristem research told its clients ahead of Thursday’s trading.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index and equities market capitalisation decreased to 97,359.76 points and N55.278 trillion respectively as against preceding trading day’s highs of 97,774.22 points and N55.513trillion.

Shares of Oando Plc decreased most from N25 to N23, losing N2 or 8 percent while Dangote Sugar Refinery decreased from preceding day’s high of N37.15 to N34.30, losing N2.85 or 7.67 percent.

“Barring a significant shift in the local capital markets environment that would benefit the equity space, we anticipate a flat to negative tilt in market sentiment on the back of this,” Vetiva Research analysts said ahead of Thursday’s trading.

Shares of Fidelity Bank, UBA, Zenith Bank, Oando and Access Holdings were actively traded as investors in 6,821 deals exchanged 565,116,303 shares worth N8.530billion.